Tag: Elon Musk

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Twitter’s latest money-making idea: paid DMs

Elon Musk is desperately trying to spin up new revenue streams for Twitter, with the latest idea being paid direct messages (DMs).

According to a report from the New York Times, a Twitter product team is working on paid DMs with a focus on “Very Important Tweeters, or V.I.T.s.” The information came from two people with knowledge of the work, who also shared internal documents with the Times.

The internal documents included mockups of the feature, which would allow Twitter users to DM their favourite celebrities for a fee. Twitter hasn’t settled on a fee structure, but it could be just a few dollars per DM.

A prototype shown to the Times depicted someone asking musician Post Malone about his favourite records. The paid DMs could appear in a special area of the message inbox, and celebrities could choose to receive them. The Times notes that Twitter likely would take a cut of the fee.

However, the people who shared details with the Times said that plans remain fluid and the feature might not even launch.

Paid DMs are just the latest idea to try and squeeze profit out of the company. Musk’s acquisition saddled the company with $13 billion USD (about $17.6 billion CAD) in debt, with annual interest payments expected to total $1 billion USD (roughly $1.4 billion CAD).

Musk also acknowledged that Twitter had “a massive drop in revenue” after advertisers pulled out, although he blamed it on pressure from “activist groups” despite causing turmoil on Twitter with mass layoffs and rapid feature changes. Plus, there was a surge in hate speed on the platform following Musk’s takeover.

All of that has combined to make Twitter less favourable to brands, which according to The Wall Street Journal, pulled ads over concerns Musk would scale back content moderation.

For the latest Musk x Twitter news, check out MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: New York Times

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Twitter employees sue over mass layoffs

Twitter employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the company over new owner Elon Musk’s plan to cut roughly half of the company’s workforce starting Friday, arguing it violates U.S. federal and California state law.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a San Francisco federal court, asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The act restricts companies from performing mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advanced notice. It also seeks to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.

Since Musk took over Twitter, the company has been in turmoil. Workers were assigned to Musk projects and forced to work long hours and weekends under threat of being fired if they didn’t meet tight deadlines. At the same time, team leaders were asked to draw up lists of employees that could be cut. A letter sent to employees on November 3rd warned them that they would receive an email by 9am PST/12pm ET on November 4th about their future at the company.

However, some employees have already started losing access to internal systems like email and Slack channels. That includes some of those assigned to Musk projects. Other employees took to Twitter to share updates about their status or post support under the hashtag ‘#OneTeam.’

“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan told Bloomberg. Liss-Riordan filed the lawsuit against Twitter, but was also behind a lawsuit against Tesla, another Musk company, for laying off about 10 percent of its workforce in June.

However, Tesla won a ruling from a federal judge in Austin, Texas, that forced the workers to pursue their claims in closed-door arbitration rather than in open court. Musk called the lawsuit “trivial” during an interview.

“We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees. It appears that he’s repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla,” Liss-Riordan said.

Musk’s Twitter cuts are part of an ongoing effort to reduce costs and squeeze profit from the social network after his acquisition saddled the company with some $13 billion USD (about $17.6 billion CAD) of debt. Musk’s other plans include increasing the cost of Twitter Blue to $8/mo USD, making verification a paid feature, and adding paywalled video.

The latest news on Twitter and Musk can be found here.

Source: Bloomberg

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Tesla applies for telecom licenses in Canada

Tesla has filed an application to offer telecom services in its vehicles in Canada.

The American automotive company, co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, filed for a Basic International Telecommunications Service (BITS) licence with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on September 15th. Approval would allow the company to become a telecommunications reseller service in Canada.

Tesla’s application says it will provide machine-to-machine cellular data service for in-vehicle infotainment access, internet access, and “mobile terminating SMS to wake up vehicles.”

“Tesla does not, and does not intend to, own or operate transmission facilities in Canada,” the application states.

This is only the latest work Tesla has done to expand its presence in Canada. Last year, the company announced it will bring a manufacturing facility to Markham, Ontario. The company also met with provincial representatives in Ontario earlier this year.

Tesla’s current application is currently open for comments on the CRTC’s website.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

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Individual emails to reveal the faith of Twitter employees

A letter sent to Twitter employees late Thursday said everyone would know their faith in the company by 9am PT (12pm ET).

“By 9am PST on Friday, Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including the spam folder,” the email, published by The Washington Post in full, states.

It was the first form of mass communication sent since Elon Musk took over Twitter last week for $44 billion. Musk is desperately trying to recuperate the costs of the hostile takeover and will start charging people to keep their verification status. 

Those keeping their roles at the company will be contacted through their Twitter email. Those who aren’t will be notified through their personal emails.

According to The Post, no one is safe. By Thursday evening, several people had already lost their jobs, including people who were put into small teams by Musk to work on new products over the past week.

“Numbers dwindling down in the [Slack] channels last hour, people dropping like flies,” an employee told the publication under the condition of anonymity.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: The Washington Post 

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Elon Musk’s plans for futuristic subway replaced by parking spaces

SpaceX had plans to create a futuristic transportation system called the Hyperloop. Those plans have hit an indefinite pause.

Plans for the subway of the future involved levitating pods across tubes of tunnels under found Elon Musk’s futuristic transportation venture, the Boring Company.

But as reported by Bloomberg, a prototype of the tunnel, first unveiled in 2018, has been paved down and replaced with a parking lot for SpaceX employees. There are no signs of the tunnel along Jack Northrop Avenue, located near Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s Hawthorne, California office, the publication notes.

While there is no clear indication as to if and when the Hyperloop could come back, Musk has teased the idea regardless.

But it seems like the world’s richest man is preoccupied with other things, namely his bid to make money from Twitter users after buying the company for $44 billion.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg

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Musk to cut half of Twitter’s workforce on Friday: report

Twitter layoffs are coming. While there’s been some debate about how many Twitter employees stand to lose their jobs — some reports went as high as 75 percent — it looks like about half the company’s employees could get let go.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Twitter’s new CEO and dude who desperately wants you to think he’s cool, Elon Musk, plans to cut 3,700 Twitter jobs. Currently, the Twitter workforce stands at roughly 7,500 people. The information comes from people with knowledge of the matter, who said Musk plans to inform affected staffers on Friday. Moreover, Musk plans to reverse the company’s work-from-anywhere policy and force employees to return to the office, although there may be some exceptions.

Musk and a team of advisors reportedly considered a variety of layoff scenarios and policy changes at Twitter, and the people who spoke to Bloomberg noted plans could still change. One scenario reportedly included offering laid-off workers 60 days’ worth of severance pay.

Once the layoffs were sorted, Twitter’s chief accounting officer, Robert Kaiden, left the company. Kaiden marks one of the last pre-Musk executives to depart the company, according to Bloomberg.

Layoffs were an expected part of Musk’s Twitter takeover. Musk made it clear from the start that he intended to fire people, with the only real question being how many people would lose their jobs. Since taking over, Twitter staff have reportedly worked long hours and over the weekend on various projects for Musk, under threat of being fired if they missed the deadline.

Meanwhile, leaders were tasked with drawing up lists of employees who could be cut, and senior personnel were told to target a 50 percent reduction in headcount, Bloomberg reported. Musk reportedly had engineers and director-level staff from Tesla review the lists, which were drawn up and ranked based on individuals’ contributions to Twitter’s code. Musk previously tweeted about focusing on Twitter’s core product, noting that “Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost.”

All these cuts come as Twitter contends with massive debt from the Musk acquisition. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk’s purchase saddled Twitter with $13 billion USD (about $17.95 billion CAD) in debt, with interest payments expected to total $1 billion USD (roughly $1.4 billion CAD) annually. That debt appears to be driving much of Musk’s decision-making as he rushes to make cuts and introduce changes to squeeze a profit from Twitter. Along with cutting staff, plans include increasing the cost of Twitter Blue to $8/mo, adding verification to Blue, and introducing a paywalled video feature.

For the latest on the Musk x Twitter news, check out MobileSyrup’s coverage here.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Bloomberg

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Twitter reportedly working on paywalled video feature

Unsurprisingly, things continue to change at Twitter under Elon Musk at a breakneck pace. One of the latest developments is a plan to paywall video content on the social platform.

The details come from The Washington Post (via The Verge), which obtained an internal company email. According to the email, users would be able to enable a ‘Paywalled Video’ feature after adding a video to a tweet and could select from preset prices, such as $1, $2, $5, or $10. Moreover, other users would still be able to retweet the video without paying to view it.

The Post also noted it’s unclear if the video plan predates Musk’s acquisition. It certainly sounds like it could — as The Verge notes, Twitter has long been exploring ways to increase revenue outside of advertising. Alternate revenue sources include things like Super Follows, which let users pay for subscriber-only content, and the Twitter Blue subscription.

Regardless of whether the paywalled video idea predated Musk, his Twitter acquisition appears to have accelerated the feature — Twitter employees reportedly have just one or two weeks to launch the video paywall feature.

However, the tight deadline may lead to other problems for Twitter. It reportedly would leave the company’s internal review team as little as three days to evaluate the risks of charging for video content, such as what happens if a user uploads copyrighted content and charges for it.

The Verge also highlights potential issues with Twitter’s porn community. Twitter remains one of the few major social media platforms to allow adult content, and while the community might benefit from a paywalled video feature, it could also cause problems with advertisers and payment providers (as a reminder, payment providers have caused problems for other adult content platforms like OnlyFans).

Source: The Washington Post Via: The Verge

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Musk says it’ll be ‘a few more weeks’ before Twitter re-platforms banned users

Elon Musk, the rich guy so hopelessly addicted to Twitter he bought it for $44 billion USD, says it will be “at least a few more weeks” before people banned from the platform will be allowed to return.

In a tweet (it’s always a tweet), Musk explained that he wants a “clear process” for allowing people previously banned from Twitter to return to the site. Creating that process will take a “few more weeks.”

Musk’s desire to bring back banned users hasn’t exactly been a secret. Musk previously called Twitter’s ban of insurrectionist and former U.S. President Donald Trump a “mistake,” and made it clear he would lift the ban after gaining control of Twitter.

Moreover, Musk said last week that there wouldn’t be any “major content decisions or account reinstatements” until Twitter had formed a content moderation council with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Following his tweet about creating a clear process for re-platforming banned users, Musk noted that the content moderation council will “include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence.”

Finally, Musk tweeted that he had talked with leaders from organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, Free Press and Color of Change, about how Twitter will “continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.” Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. Gonzalez told CNBC in a statement that the conversation with Musk was “productive” and noted the new Twitter CEO promised the re-platforming process would be transparent. Moreover, Gonzalez said Musk planned not to reinstate accounts that violated Twitter’s trust and safety rules before the U.S. midterm elections on November 8th.

Admittedly, this appears to be somewhat good news for those worried about how Twitter would change under Musk. In the early hours of Musk’s Twitter takeover, the site saw an increase in hate speech and harassment from users emboldened by Musk’s free speech views. Meanwhile, Musk worked to assuage the concerns of advertisers, writing that Twitter wouldn’t turn into a “free-for-all-hellscape.”

For the latest on all the Musk x Twitter news, check out our coverage here.

Source: @elonmusk Via: CNBC

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Mass production for Tesla’s Cybertruck to start in late 2023

Now that Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has gone through, it appears as though he’s back to devoting his attention to Tesla. That’s because Tesla is reportedly looking to start mass production of its long-promised Cybertruck in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Cybertruck was announced way back in 2019, and was supposed to enter production in late 2021. That never happened, supposedly due to battery shortages. Subsequently, in August 2021, Musk delayed the vehicle to sometime in 2022 before pushing it to January during a Q4 earnings call.

A report in July this year indicated that Cybertruck deliveries could finally start arriving in mid-2023, but even that seems to be out of question, considering that two sources with knowledge of Tesla’s plans informed Reuters that the automobile company intends to start mass production at the end of 2023.

Further, in a conference call with financial analysts last month, Musk said Tesla is readying its Austin, Texas plant to build the Cybertruck, with “early production” set to begin in the middle of 2023.

It’s likely the truck won’t be delivered to buyers until sometime in 2024.

Back in 2019, when the truck was first revealed, Tesla quoted a $39,900 USD (roughly $54,400 CAD) price tag for the vehicle. In August this year, During a Tesla shareholder’s meeting, Musk said that “a lot has changed” since then, and that the Cybertruck’s price and specifications will change before its release.

Image credit: Tesla

Source: Reuters

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Elon Musk says Twitter Blue will cost $8/month

Elon Musk says Twitter Blue subscriptions will be available for $8 a month in the U.S.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” Musk tweeted.

American subscribers currently pay $4.99 USD for Twitter Blue. In Canada, the service costs $6.49 a month.

The new version of Twitter’s subscriptions service will include tools Musk says are “essential to defeat spam/scam,” like “priority in replies, mentions & search.” The “Chief Twit” didn’t provide specifics for these tools.

Users can also “post long video & audio” and get “half as many ads.” Musk’s tweet announcing the details state he’s willing to work with publishers who will offer Twitter Blue users an option to bypass paywalls for content.

Twitter Blue will also be available outside of the U.S., and the price will be “proportionate to purchasing power parity.” However, Musk didn’t provide details as to what countries this includes.

“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” Musk concludes.

Recent internal correspondence showed the plan was initially set to have a $20 price tag, and it’s unclear how Musk decided on the $8 price point.

Either way, he believes increasing the price of Twitter’s subscription service will solve some of the platform’s problems. For example, one user wrote that paying for verifications will solve the platform’s issues with bots and impersonation. Musk responded with a one-word answer: “exactly.”

Twitter Blue rolled in Canada in June 2021.

Source: @elonmusk