One of the most pressing concerns raised by Elon Musk bid to acquire Twitter is how the service will change under his ownership. We’re still a long way from the deal becoming official.
Musk has had to pitch to investors his vision for the company in order to secure the funding he requires. The New York Times has obtained a copy of a pitch deck for investors, which gives us an idea of Musk’s ridiculously grand vision for the company. Here are some of the highlights.
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To begin, Musk wants to increase Twitter’s monthly users from 217 million at the end of 2021 to nearly 600 million in 2025 and 931 million by 2028. In the next six years, this will more than quadruple its monthly users.
Musk also wants 104 million paid subscribers for a service codenamed “X.” There were no specifics on what product X would be, but Musk has hinted cryptically at an ad-free paid Twitter experience.
Speaking of paying for Twitter, Musk’s pitch deck contains extensive information on some ambitious revenue targets. He believes Twitter can more than quintuple its annual revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from around $5 billion last year.
Musk also wants to significantly diversify Twitter’s revenue streams. Currently, advertising accounts for approximately 90% of Twitter’s revenue; Musk hopes to reduce this to approximately 45 percent by 2028. His forecast includes $12 billion in ad revenue and $10 billion in subscription revenue.
Twitter would obviously need a lot more paid users to meet those lofty goals. Musk predicted that there would be 69 million Twitter Blue users by 2025 and 159 million by 2028.
Twitter Blue is a $3-per-month service that launched in the United States in November and includes perks such as ad-free news articles, the ability to undo sending a tweet, and a few other minor conveniences. Musk clearly values getting users to opt into some sort of paid Twitter experience, as evidenced by the mysterious product X and Twitter Blue.
Finally, Musk believes Twitter will make some moves in the payment space. He expects the company’s payments business to generate $15 million in revenue in 2023, rising to around $1.3 billion by 2028.
Twitter currently provides very limited shopping and tipping features that, according to the New York Times, have no discernible impact on the company’s bottom line.
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The New York Times didn’t go into detail about how Musk plans to meet these lofty targets, only that he expects big things from Twitter once his takeover is complete.
Quadrupling users and quintupling revenue is an extremely difficult task for a well-established company like Twitter. Elon Musk, on the other hand, clearly did not want to spend $44 billion on Twitter just to maintain the status quo.
