Technology

a move only a true busines genius could execute

Yeah, you know what would've been a better solution? Do the exact opposite of every decision Musk has made.

I think Twitter could've been profitable with a few small tweaks to get more from big content generators. When running a SM site, your #1 priority should be to make the experience for regular users better and make money from content producers. Maybe have a few money-making options for regular customers like paying to remove ads, but the bulk of the revenue stream should come from ideas like:

• permalink messages - this would also make them easier to find with a search
• real account verification - not the stupid blue checkmark thing, but an actual human verifies your identity
• promoted messages - not ads (i.e. ban attempts to market products), just increase visibility, but would be time-limited (i.e. pay for a boost over the next hour, day, week)
• integrations with other platforms - have a blog? pay to auto-link when you make a new post!

This only works because Twitter is already big, so if you're starting from scratch, you just don't charge for anything and maybe run some ads to offset losses. But once your platform gets big, that's when you start milking the whales.

But no, Musk instead tried to milk the userbase, so the userbase just leaves. He also decided to reinstate undesirable accounts, which offends advertisers. And he decided to make account authentication worthless, so content creators have no reason to stay. He's making every possible wrong decision.