Linda Yaccarino, the newly appointed CEO of the platform previously known as Twitter, now rebranded as X, outlined the company's success and future plans in a memo to staff. Reiterating her previous claim, albeit without sharing any specific data, Yaccarino maintained that the platform's usage has hit an "all time high". She also gave subtle hints about upcoming product experiences for X.
Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, had envisioned Twitter to evolve beyond a social network into an "everything app". Musk, who is also the executive at Tesla and SpaceX, had stated that purchasing Twitter was aimed at facilitating the creation of X, the ultimate app for everything.
His ambitious plan involved developing an app that enabled content creators to monetize their work, with a later expansion into payment services and even banking. In a Twitter Spaces livestream with advertisers last November, Musk even speculated the idea of creating high-interest money market accounts on Twitter to draw consumers to X.
Yaccarino's memo referred to these potential product plans, stating, “Our usage is at an all time high and we’ll continue to delight our entire community with new experiences in audio, video, messaging, payments, banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”
Twitter X has already rolled out some of Musk’s propositions, specifically those related to videos and creator monetization. In May, the platform began allowing subscribers to upload two-hour long videos. However, not everything is rosy at Twitter X. Third-party measurements have indicated a drop in traffic for the platform. Data from Similarweb showed a 5% decline in Twitter's web traffic when its latest competitor, Instagram Threads, was launched. Moreover, the analytics firm reported an 11% drop in Twitter’s web traffic compared to the same period in 2022.
The full memo, is below:
Hi team,
What a momentous weekend. As I said yesterday, it’s extremely rare, whether it’s in life or in business, that you have the opportunity to make another big impression. That’s what we’re experiencing together, in real time. Take a moment to put it all into perspective.
17 years ago, Twitter made a lasting imprint on the world. The platform changed the speed at which people accessed information. It created a new dynamic for how people communicated, debated, and responded to things happening in the world. Twitter introduced a new way for people, public figures, and brands to build long lasting relationships. In one way or another, everyone here is a driving force in that change. But equally all our users and partners constantly challenged us to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential.
With X we will go even further to transform the global town square — and impress the world all over again.
Our company uniquely has the drive to make this possible. Many companies say they want to move fast — but we enjoy moving at the speed of light, and when we do, that’s X. At our core, we have an inventor mindset — constantly learning, testing out new approaches, changing to get it right and ultimately succeeding.
With X, we serve our entire community of users and customers by working tirelessly to preserve free expression and choice, create limitless interactivity, and create a marketplace that enables the economic success of all its participants.
The best news is we’re well underway. Everyone should be proud of the pace of innovation over the last nine months — from long form content, to creator monetization, and tremendous advancements in brand safety protections. Our usage is at an all time high and we’ll continue to delight our entire community with new experiences in audio, video, messaging, payments, banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.
Please don’t take this moment for granted. You’re writing history, and there’s no limit to our transformation. And everyone, is invited to build X with us.
Elon and I will be working across every team and partner to bring X to the world. That includes keeping our entire community up to date, ensuring that we all have the information we need to move forward.
Now, let’s go make that next big impression on the world, together.
Linda
Despite these concerns, Yaccarino continues to assert high usage of X in her memo. This assertion comes amid predictions by Forrester analysts that X will either shut down or be acquired within the next year, and a consensus among numerous critics that the X rebrand is bound to fail. Nonetheless, Yaccarino's memo championed X's team for their efforts and extolled X's potential to “impress the world all over again,” as Twitter once did.
