Twitter lost over 500 advertisers since Musk takeover

More than 500 of Twitter’s advertisers have stopped spending money on the platform since Elon Musk took over the microblogging site in October last year, according to a report published by The Information on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with its advertising operations. 

The source named as Siddharth Rao, an engineering manager overseeing the engineers working on Twitter's advertising business, revealed the information in a staff meeting on Tuesday, January 17.  

On the same day, the social media company's daily revenue was 40% lower than the same day a year ago, the report added, which the source, blamed on the takeover. The drop in the company's revenue was first reported by technology newsletter Platformer on Tuesday, the report said. 

Since Musk’ took over Twitter in October last year, the company axed more than 3,000 staff and has reinstated several controversial accounts to the platforms. The company also introduced a paid verification feature that resulted in scammers impersonating companies on Twitter. 

Corporate advertisers have fled largely due to pressure from powerful civil rights organisation groups, namely the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups began a campaign against Twitter following Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate Donald Trump on to the platform in November last year. 

“Any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pause all advertising”, NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared in November. 

The social media platform recently reversed its 2019 ban on political ads and said that it would relax advertising policy for ‘cause-based ads’ in the United States and align its ad policy with TV and other media outlets. 

Last week, Twitter said that it has rolled out a new user interface that is only available on the iOS version of the Twitter app. The updated interface replaces the ‘Home’ and ‘Latest’ tabs with ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ tabs and lets users easily switch between the two. The company has not given any clarity on whether the same will be introduced for Android users.