Among the most important questions on individuals’s thoughts since Elon Musk made his bid to purchase Twitter is how the service may change underneath his possession. We’re nonetheless a great distance off from the deal turning into official, however Musk nonetheless has needed to pitch traders on his imaginative and prescient for the corporate to get the funding he wants. As it so occurs, the New York Times has obtained a replica of a pitch deck for traders, which supplies us an thought of the preposterously grand imaginative and prescient that Musk has for the corporate. Here are a couple of highlights.
For starters, Musk desires to develop Twitter’s month-to-month customers from the 217 million it had on the finish of 2021 to almost 600 million in 2025 and 931 million customers by 2028. That’s greater than quadrupling its month-to-month customers within the subsequent six years. Musk additionally desires to have 104 million paid subscribers for a service solely known as “X.” There weren’t any particulars on what kind of product X can be, however Musk has cryptically hinted at an ad-free paid Twitter expertise.
Speaking of paying for Twitter, Musk’s pitch deck has plenty of particulars on some formidable income objectives, as effectively. He believes that Twitter can quintuple its annual income to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from the roughly $5 billion the corporate made final yr. And Musk desires to considerably diversify how Twitter makes cash, as effectively. Right now, promoting makes up about 90 % of Twitter’s income; Musk desires to chop that to about 45 % by 2028. His forecast would come with $12 billion in promoting income and $10 billion in subscription income.
To meet these lofty objectives, Twitter would clearly want much more paid customers. Musk forecasted 69 million Twitter Blue customers by 2025 and 159 million by 2028. Twitter Blue is a $3 per 30 days service that launched within the US this previous November and provides perks like ad-free information articles, the flexibility to undo sending a tweet and some different small niceties. Between the mysterious product X and Twitter Blue, Musk is clearly placing plenty of significance on getting customers to choose into some type of paid Twitter expertise.
Finally, Musk sees Twitter making some strikes within the fee house as effectively. He desires the corporate to usher in a modest $15 million in income from a funds enterprise in 2023, with that quantity rising to round $1.3 billion by 2028. Currently, Twitter provides very restricted purchasing and tipping options that the NYT says make no notable affect on the corporate’s backside line.
The NYT did not have any particulars on how Musk expects to fulfill these lofty objectives — solely that he expects huge issues from Twitter as soon as his takeover is full. Quadrupling customers and quintupling income is an especially tall order for an organization like Twitter that is already effectively established. But Musk clearly did not need to spend $44 billion on Twitter simply to maintain the established order.