Micro-blogging platform Twitter has shut its Mumbai and Delhi offices. As of now, only three employees remain in the India team where one of them is the country lead. The other two look after the operations of the north and east, and south and west regions respectively, CNBC-TV18 reported.
This move is an extension of the mass layoff that began in 2022 since the time Elon Musk took up the mandate of the platform through a $44 bn buyout as the chief executive officer. In the first week of his joining, Musk laid off 50 percent of its workforce.
Total, 90 percent of the platform’s 200 employees have been laid off. At present, there have been reports that 50 employees from the product team will likely be asked to depart in the coming weeks.
As per a CNBC-TV18 report, since the $44 billion buyout, Twitter has failed to pay millions of dollars in rent for its San Francisco headquarters and London offices. Further, the company has been sued by multiple contractors over unpaid services, and to raise money has auctioned off everything, which includes bird statues, espresso machines etc.
It is not just layoffs which have rocked the boat of the platform. Doubts surrounding content moderation raised serious concerns among advertisers and ad agencies which led a few of them to temporarily take a step back.
Some of the well-known brands and advertising agencies which pressed the pause button and asked their clients to follow suit are Mondelez International, Audi, General Motors, United Airlines Holdings, General Mills, Allianz, Pfizer, Balenciaga, WPP’s GroupM, Omnicom and Interpublic Group.
As per media reports, Twitter’s internal revenue projections for the final quarter of 2022 stood at $1.1 billion which decreased from $1.4 billion. Compared to 2022, the advertising revenue of Twitter decreased by 40 percent. This decrease could further lead to cost cutting measures.
In November 2022, Twitter’s revenue for the fourth quarter dropped by around 35 percent to $1.025 billion, a media report highlights.
Apart from Musk laying off 50 percent of the workforce, the introduction of an $8 blue-tick subscription made matters worse for the platform and its chances to recover the lost ad revenues. The move gave rise to fake accounts or imposters. Blue-tick for an impostor account was obtained and a tweet by them highlighting that insulin was now available for free led to the stock prices tumbling down by five percent.
Musk and his antics continue. Recently, he announced on Twitter that Floki, the crypto dog, as the ‘CEO’ of the platform. The tweet read, “The new CEO of Twitter is amazing.”
Read More: Advertising on Elon Musk’s Twitter: Why are brands still on the micro-blogging platform?