Elon Musk Reports Twitter’s Advertising Revenue Has Decreased by Half
Elon Musk has stated that Twitter continues to spend more money than it generates. In a recent tweet, the billionaire highlighted the company’s ongoing problem of negative cash flow, which has been exacerbated by a significant decline in advertising revenue and a substantial debt burden. Musk emphasized the need for Twitter to achieve positive cash flow before considering any other endeavors.
We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2023
The access comes in the same week that Twitter’s ad revenue-sharing program began paying some contributors, including a handful of far-right influencers. On Friday, Musk also claimed that the social network could see “the highest user seconds of device usage ever” sometime this week. He also previously said that almost all of the advertisers who had left the platform since his takeover in October had “either returned” or “said they would.”
Advertising spending fell 89 percent to $7.6 million in two months earlier this year, according to an estimate shared with Bloomberg by research firm Sensor Tower. According to Reuters, Twitter’s annual interest payments are about $1.5 billion due to the debt the company took on when Musk took it private for $44 billion. It’s the latest sign that Musk’s aggressive austerity measures last year haven’t been enough to put the company on solid financial footing. It also suggests that the company’s newly appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino has her work cut out for her as she rebuilds Twitter’s advertising base.
