Elon Musk Promises To Make Twitter The Most Respected Platform For Advertisers

Elon Musk at the Twitter office with employees. (photo: Twitter @WalterIsaacson)

JAKARTA – It used to be Elon Musk, who once tweeted "I hate ads". But now he says he wants Twitter Inc to be "the most respected advertising platform". This was done in a bid to win the trust of ad buyers ahead of closing an expected acquisition of his $44 billion deal for the social media company.

Musk, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and an investor in the deal, has previously suggested staying away from advertising and seeking revenue from subscriptions and other means. Advertisers also told Reuters they were concerned about the takeover.

“There has been a lot of speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I thought about advertising. Most of it is wrong,” Musk said in a tweet on Thursday, October 27.

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

"Essentially, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your company," Musk said in a tweet.

Musk also responded "absolutely" to a tweet calling for top creators on Twitter to be compensated similarly to other social media platforms.

Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter, and Reuters reported earlier this week that the company is struggling to retain the most active users who are important to their business.

It underscores the challenges facing Musk, who visited Twitter's San Francisco headquarters last Wednesday and also hinted at becoming the company's top boss by updating his profile bio to "Chief Twit".

In his tweet on Thursday, Musk also said he wanted Twitter to be "a shared digital city square, where different beliefs can be debated in a healthy way, without resorting to violence".

The self-proclaimed "absolute free speech" said in May that he would reverse the Twitter ban on former US President Donald Trump, which was removed from the microblogging site in January last year because of the risk of further incitement to violence following the storming of the US Capitol.

The question of reinstating Trump on the social media platform has been seen as a litmus test of how far Musk will go, even though Trump himself has said he won't be returning to Twitter.

The completion of the Twitter deal will mark the end of a six-month story. The company's shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange website.