One of the biggest questions on people's minds since Elon Musk attempted to buy Twitter is how the service might change under his ownership.
As it happens, the New York Times has obtained a copy of a batch of investor presentations, which give us an idea of the unbelievably great vision that Musk has for the company, and here are some of the highlights:
- 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, more than quadrupling his monthly users in the next six years.
- Musk also wants to get 104 million paid subscribers for a service referred to only as "X". There weren't any details on what kind of Product X it would be, but Musk hinted surreptitiously for a paid Twitter experience without ads.
Speaking of paying for Twitter, Musk's presentation deck has plenty of detail on some ambitious revenue goals as well, and he believes Twitter could fivefold its annual revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from about $5 billion it made. company last year.
- And Musk wants to significantly diversify how Twitter makes money, too. Currently, ads make up about 90 percent of Twitter's revenue. Musk wants to bring that down to about 45 percent by 2028. His forecasts will include $12 billion in advertising revenue and $10 billion in subscription revenue.
To achieve these lofty goals, it is clear that Twitter will need more paid users. Musk predicts 69 million users of Twitter Blue by 2025 and 159 million by 2028.
Twitter Blue is a $3 per month service that launched in the US last November and offers benefits like ad-free news articles, the ability to undo tweeting, and a few other small details. Between the obscure product X and Twitter Blue, Musk clearly places great importance on getting users to sign up for some kind of paid Twitter experience.
Finally, Musk sees Twitter making some moves in the payment space, too. He wants the company to generate a modest $15 million in revenue from the payments business in 2023, with that number growing to about $1.3 billion by 2028. Currently, Twitter offers very limited shopping and tipping features that the New York Times says has no noticeable impact on them. The company's net profit.
The New York Times had no details of how Musk expected to achieve these lofty goals - only that he expects big things from Twitter once his takeover is complete. Quadrupling the number of users and doubling the revenue five times is very difficult for a company like Twitter that is already well established. But Musk clearly didn't want to spend $44 billion on Twitter just to maintain the status quo.