8 ms·

twitter fired a lot more % and it's still working

izacus 2y ago
Twitter revenue is down 84% and is continuing to collapse every month. If that is "Working", then I'd love to laugh at your definition of failing :D
- jeroenhd 2y ago
  The revenue problem is mostly because of Twitter's new leadership, on the technical side the few people that remained have managed to keep the platform running quite well. Sure, it has been plagued by the occasional random errors and downtime ever since Musk came in, but I don't expect most companies to remain operational on a technical level when 80% leaves. An important lesson for tech companies: hire strategic H1B employees throughout your company so when times are real tough, you're sure you can maintain operations with desperate staff that can't afford to leave.
  - toyg 2y ago
    > hire strategic H1B employees [so that] you can maintain operations with desperate staff that can't afford to leave In other words: slavery has only upsides for slaveowners.
Hamuko 2y ago
The spam filtering system sure as shit isn't working. The amount of spam DMs I get is crazy. The trends section has also been busted for ages. Click on the "Show more" link and it shows you less.
- LightBug1 2y ago
  Yeah, that's the bit that finally made me delete that account. I was pissed at Musk and his nonsense anyway - but the amount of random spam on there just made it annoying to use. I mean, no I don't want a discount on a boob job ... but thanks.
LightBug1 2y ago
[flagged]
addicted 2y ago
By nearly every measure Twitter is doing a lot worse than it was before those people were fired. It was growing in revenues and profit and since then has shrunk drastically in both measures. Now one could reasonably argue that it wasn’t due to the firing. However, the burden of proof lies with the people claiming that the concurrent loss of revenue and profit had nothing to do with the firings. And Twitter being a private company it’s unlikely anyone can ever get the data to support that claim. Further, Twitter’s unique nature as a vanity project for the owner makes even public statements bh thst owner highly suspect, since they have a vested interest in making this look like the right decision and disclosure laws don’t apply to private companies so he can basically lie and still be ok.
- DeusExMachina 2y ago
  > By nearly every measure Twitter is doing a lot worse > And Twitter being a private company it’s unlikely anyone can ever get the data support that claim So, only the data supporting your point of view is reliable?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- chii 2y ago
  People were claiming at the time that twitter would shutdown and close shop.
  - onion2k 2y ago
    The people who said that had no idea what extent the Twitter tech team had gone to to build a robust application that wouldn't fall over. The fact it withstood 75% of the staff being removed is a testament to the good work they did, not a sign that they weren't needed in the first place.
- kelnos 2y ago
  > However, the burden of proof lies with the people claiming that the concurrent loss of revenue and profit had nothing to do with the firings. No, if you want to establish correlation or causation, you have to prove it. Don't have access to the data to prove something? Sucks, but then you can't draw that conclusion, at least not definitively. I can believe, though, that you're at least somewhat correct that the mass firings were responsible for Twitter's decline. But it's plausible that other things are also to blame, and possibly even primarily to blame: questionable product decisions made post-acquisition (Twitter Blue, lax moderation, requiring logins to view, ...), the volatility and offensiveness of the new owner causing advertisers to leave, etc.
fire_lake 2y ago
Twitter was profitable just before Elon purchased it and gutted it. So far his plan is not working.
- CaptainFever 2y ago
  I was curious if this is true or not. Found this: https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/twitter-facts-statistics/#twitters-net-income-from-2010 https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/twitter-facts-s... which came from before Twitter went private. It's technically correct that they did make a profit (e.g. 2022 Q1), but also made a lot of loss (e.g. 2022 Q2). Comparatively, it's hard to find information about Twitter now. Most news articles mocks the revenue, but has no information about profit. However, given that Elon said Twitter "will be" profitable in 2024, I think it's safe to assume it isn't profitable yet? This surprises me, I thought it became profitable from cutting expenses, but the truth is complicated. It used to be both profitable and not profitable at the same time (see the first link), but now it's mostly not profitable.
  - saagarjha 2y ago
    Elon made substantial cuts but he has debt servicing that itself is a very large cost.
  - jeroenhd 2y ago
    The massive debt Elon has set Twitter up with is probably driving their current losses. Advertisers wanting nothing to do with him after telling them to fuck off is one thing, but the interest on those billions of borrowed money aren't cheap to hold on to. What also doesn't help Twitter's case is that employees are still fighting to get paid their severance fees. That's a couple hundred million dollars that Elon probably assumes he doesn't need to pay. Other fees on the order of tens of millions of dollars also include the rent that Elon decided he doesn't need to pay, as well as a bunch of other bunch of unpaid stuff. My guess is that Twitter is banking on not having to pay all of its debts at once, slowly building up a profit and regaining its value so it can have the cashflow to pay back its arrears later, but that's a risky move that may lead to a debt spiral or bankruptcy.
aimazon 2y ago
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/29/fidelity-has-cut-xs-value-by-79-since-musk-purchase/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/29/fidelity-has-cut-xs-value-...
TazeTSchnitzel 2y ago
It is actually quite remarkable that Twitter has kept functioning at a technical level. A lot of people expected the massive loss of engineering talent to doom them, but it seemingly hasn't. However, the site is going through a serious cultural (maybe you could say spiritual) death, and that might have something to do with the lost institutional knowledge of what made Twitter tick at a level deeper than just the code.
- kelnos 2y ago
  I'm skeptical, honestly. Within the first few months of the acquisition, it seemed pretty clear to my tech-friend group that Twitter was on its way out and was going to fail. But it's been 2 years, and many of those same people still use Twitter quite a lot. Maybe it'll still fail, of course... it'll just take longer than anyone expected. I was never a big fan of it, and never used it much, so I can't judge any loss of quality over the past 2 years. And since they now require a login most of the time, and I don't feel like logging in, I don't bother clicking through links to Twitter that people post.
  - KptMarchewa 2y ago
    I don't expect it to "fail" in a financial way because Elon Musk can just bankroll his political addiction.
  - oxfordmale 2y ago
    Software can work for a very long time with minimal maintenance. A different question is if it can keep making revenue without investing. Quality content has disappeared on Twitter and there is a proliferation of Only Fans tweets. However if you love Musk and right wing conspiracies it is still a fine platform to use.
  - myspy 2y ago
    I don't get why whole developer circles didn't leave the platform yet. You can't ask people something via DMs without paying for the blue checkmark and it's totally unhelpful, plus it sends the message you care not enough about the right wing messaging that is send by the platform now. Or these people are just ok with that, I don't know.
oxfordmale 2y ago
Define working. It's is currently on a path of slow but steady decline. It is no longer useful for breaking news and it is full with Only Fans tweets. However, if you want to read about Elon Musk or are into right wing conspiracy theories, it is still perfect.
- webisporn 2y ago
  Unless onlyfans has changed, there seems to plenty to enjoy outside of musk / the right wing.
  - oxfordmale 2y ago
    It just makes the site NSFW. If I want to enjoy Only Fans, I know where to find it.
NicoJuicy 2y ago
Yeah. It works - Scrolling after a while, the sound of a video doesn't stop anymore => force close - A lot of violence, literally. I keep on blocking them ( recently logged in with another account due to a new phone and I had to do it again). It's nuts how much violence it promotes recently. I'm pretty sure a lot of people who got fired did censorship and I miss it.
snatchpiesinger 2y ago
I assume that firing was a bit more selective in who they wanted to keep.
onion2k 2y ago
Working in the sense that the app is still up and running, sure. Working in the sense of being a successful purchase that's making a good return on Elon's investment by growing and profiting, not so much apparently.

Twitter revenue is down 84% and is continuing to collapse every month. If that is "Working", then I'd love to laugh at your definition of failing :D

jeroenhd 2y ago
The revenue problem is mostly because of Twitter's new leadership, on the technical side the few people that remained have managed to keep the platform running quite well. Sure, it has been plagued by the occasional random errors and downtime ever since Musk came in, but I don't expect most companies to remain operational on a technical level when 80% leaves. An important lesson for tech companies: hire strategic H1B employees throughout your company so when times are real tough, you're sure you can maintain operations with desperate staff that can't afford to leave.
- toyg 2y ago
  > hire strategic H1B employees [so that] you can maintain operations with desperate staff that can't afford to leave In other words: slavery has only upsides for slaveowners.

Hamuko 2y ago

The spam filtering system sure as shit isn't working. The amount of spam DMs I get is crazy. The trends section has also been busted for ages. Click on the "Show more" link and it shows you less.

LightBug1 2y ago
Yeah, that's the bit that finally made me delete that account. I was pissed at Musk and his nonsense anyway - but the amount of random spam on there just made it annoying to use. I mean, no I don't want a discount on a boob job ... but thanks.

LightBug1 2y ago

[flagged]

addicted 2y ago

By nearly every measure Twitter is doing a lot worse than it was before those people were fired. It was growing in revenues and profit and since then has shrunk drastically in both measures. Now one could reasonably argue that it wasn’t due to the firing. However, the burden of proof lies with the people claiming that the concurrent loss of revenue and profit had nothing to do with the firings. And Twitter being a private company it’s unlikely anyone can ever get the data to support that claim. Further, Twitter’s unique nature as a vanity project for the owner makes even public statements bh thst owner highly suspect, since they have a vested interest in making this look like the right decision and disclosure laws don’t apply to private companies so he can basically lie and still be ok.

DeusExMachina 2y ago
> By nearly every measure Twitter is doing a lot worse > And Twitter being a private company it’s unlikely anyone can ever get the data support that claim So, only the data supporting your point of view is reliable?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
chii 2y ago
People were claiming at the time that twitter would shutdown and close shop.
- onion2k 2y ago
  The people who said that had no idea what extent the Twitter tech team had gone to to build a robust application that wouldn't fall over. The fact it withstood 75% of the staff being removed is a testament to the good work they did, not a sign that they weren't needed in the first place.
kelnos 2y ago
> However, the burden of proof lies with the people claiming that the concurrent loss of revenue and profit had nothing to do with the firings. No, if you want to establish correlation or causation, you have to prove it. Don't have access to the data to prove something? Sucks, but then you can't draw that conclusion, at least not definitively. I can believe, though, that you're at least somewhat correct that the mass firings were responsible for Twitter's decline. But it's plausible that other things are also to blame, and possibly even primarily to blame: questionable product decisions made post-acquisition (Twitter Blue, lax moderation, requiring logins to view, ...), the volatility and offensiveness of the new owner causing advertisers to leave, etc.

fire_lake 2y ago

Twitter was profitable just before Elon purchased it and gutted it. So far his plan is not working.

CaptainFever 2y ago
I was curious if this is true or not. Found this: https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/twitter-facts-statistics/#twitters-net-income-from-2010 https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/twitter-facts-s... which came from before Twitter went private. It's technically correct that they did make a profit (e.g. 2022 Q1), but also made a lot of loss (e.g. 2022 Q2). Comparatively, it's hard to find information about Twitter now. Most news articles mocks the revenue, but has no information about profit. However, given that Elon said Twitter "will be" profitable in 2024, I think it's safe to assume it isn't profitable yet? This surprises me, I thought it became profitable from cutting expenses, but the truth is complicated. It used to be both profitable and not profitable at the same time (see the first link), but now it's mostly not profitable.
- saagarjha 2y ago
  Elon made substantial cuts but he has debt servicing that itself is a very large cost.
- jeroenhd 2y ago
  The massive debt Elon has set Twitter up with is probably driving their current losses. Advertisers wanting nothing to do with him after telling them to fuck off is one thing, but the interest on those billions of borrowed money aren't cheap to hold on to. What also doesn't help Twitter's case is that employees are still fighting to get paid their severance fees. That's a couple hundred million dollars that Elon probably assumes he doesn't need to pay. Other fees on the order of tens of millions of dollars also include the rent that Elon decided he doesn't need to pay, as well as a bunch of other bunch of unpaid stuff. My guess is that Twitter is banking on not having to pay all of its debts at once, slowly building up a profit and regaining its value so it can have the cashflow to pay back its arrears later, but that's a risky move that may lead to a debt spiral or bankruptcy.

aimazon 2y ago

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/29/fidelity-has-cut-xs-value-by-79-since-musk-purchase/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/29/fidelity-has-cut-xs-value-...

TazeTSchnitzel 2y ago

It is actually quite remarkable that Twitter has kept functioning at a technical level. A lot of people expected the massive loss of engineering talent to doom them, but it seemingly hasn't. However, the site is going through a serious cultural (maybe you could say spiritual) death, and that might have something to do with the lost institutional knowledge of what made Twitter tick at a level deeper than just the code.

kelnos 2y ago
I'm skeptical, honestly. Within the first few months of the acquisition, it seemed pretty clear to my tech-friend group that Twitter was on its way out and was going to fail. But it's been 2 years, and many of those same people still use Twitter quite a lot. Maybe it'll still fail, of course... it'll just take longer than anyone expected. I was never a big fan of it, and never used it much, so I can't judge any loss of quality over the past 2 years. And since they now require a login most of the time, and I don't feel like logging in, I don't bother clicking through links to Twitter that people post.
- KptMarchewa 2y ago
  I don't expect it to "fail" in a financial way because Elon Musk can just bankroll his political addiction.
- oxfordmale 2y ago
  Software can work for a very long time with minimal maintenance. A different question is if it can keep making revenue without investing. Quality content has disappeared on Twitter and there is a proliferation of Only Fans tweets. However if you love Musk and right wing conspiracies it is still a fine platform to use.
- myspy 2y ago
  I don't get why whole developer circles didn't leave the platform yet. You can't ask people something via DMs without paying for the blue checkmark and it's totally unhelpful, plus it sends the message you care not enough about the right wing messaging that is send by the platform now. Or these people are just ok with that, I don't know.

oxfordmale 2y ago

Define working. It's is currently on a path of slow but steady decline. It is no longer useful for breaking news and it is full with Only Fans tweets. However, if you want to read about Elon Musk or are into right wing conspiracy theories, it is still perfect.

webisporn 2y ago
Unless onlyfans has changed, there seems to plenty to enjoy outside of musk / the right wing.
- oxfordmale 2y ago
  It just makes the site NSFW. If I want to enjoy Only Fans, I know where to find it.

NicoJuicy 2y ago

Yeah. It works - Scrolling after a while, the sound of a video doesn't stop anymore => force close - A lot of violence, literally. I keep on blocking them ( recently logged in with another account due to a new phone and I had to do it again). It's nuts how much violence it promotes recently. I'm pretty sure a lot of people who got fired did censorship and I miss it.

snatchpiesinger 2y ago

I assume that firing was a bit more selective in who they wanted to keep.

onion2k 2y ago

Working in the sense that the app is still up and running, sure. Working in the sense of being a successful purchase that's making a good return on Elon's investment by growing and profiting, not so much apparently.