Twitter has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since it was bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion (£33.6 billion) last October, its owner has revealed.
He said the company had not seen the increase in sales that had been expected in June but added that July was a “bit more promising”.
Mr. Musk sacked about half of Twitter’s 7,500 staff when he took over in 2022 in an effort to cut costs.
Rival app Threads now has 150 million users, according to some estimates.
Its in-built connection to Instagram automatically gives the Meta-designed platform access to a potential two billion users.
Meanwhile, Twitter is struggling under a heavy debt load. Cash flow remains negative, Mr. Musk said at the weekend, although the billionaire did not put a time frame on the 50% drop in ad revenue.
In a tweet, he said, “We need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.”
After laying off thousands of employees and cutting cloud service bills, Mr. Musk said Twitter was on track to post $3 billion (£2.29 billion) in revenue in 2023, down from $5.1 billion in 2021.
The development is the latest sign that aggressive cost-cutting measures have not been enough to ignite the return of advertisers who fled after changes to its content moderation rules.
That is despite an interview Mr. Musk gave to the BBC in April in which he suggested that most had returned to the site.
However, Meghana Dhar, the former head of partnerships at Snap and Meta, which owns the new Twitter rival Threads, said the company had been struggling prior to Mr. Musk’s buyout.
“Elon and Twitter are in a candidly tough position right now,” she told the BBC’s Today programme. “To be fair to Elon, though, we’ve seen that decline in Twitter revenue and growth in revenue since pre-Elon—there’s been kind of a steady decline.”
Lucy Coutts, investment director at JM Finn, said: “You wouldn’t bet against him; he’s a kind of mercurial figure, and I think probably he will turn it around, but it is just going to take longer.
“But unfortunately, he has got $13 billion of debt to pay by the end of July, so we may see more pressure on the shares in Tesla if he has to sell more of his stake in that company.”
Mr. Musk is also the chief executive and majority shareholder of electric car maker Tesla, which will report its latest quarterly financial results on Wednesday.
Linda Yaccarino, previously head of advertising at NBCUniversal, was taken on as chief executive of Twitter in June, a move suggesting advertising sales are still a priority for the company.
Ms. Yaccarino has said Twitter plans to focus on video, creator, and commerce partnerships. It is said to be in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payment services, and news and media publishers.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
