Musk wants to quadruple Twitter users and quintuple revenue: this is how he intends to achieve it

If the target is small, it’s not for Elon. The new owner of Twitter has just set some goals for the next six years of the social network. And, in the line that he had already shown at the head of Tesla or SpaceX, they are anything but humble. The billionaire wants to reach 2028 with two data on the table: four times more users and a level of income that is five times the current level, a notable increase that he intends to achieve, in addition, by reducing his dependence on advertising.

Just a few days after taking over the social network for $44 billion, Musk presented investors with his roadmap for much of the remainder of the decade. The plan, filtered by the newspaper New York Times, draws a scenario marked by the rise in income, users and employees. Of all, the most ambitious goal is probably the one that points to the coffers of the company: Musk wants to shoot annual revenues up to 26.4 billion dollars in 2028, five times more than the 5,000 with which the last financial year was closed.

The rise, curiously, intends to reach it at the same time as Twitter cut your dependence on advertising. The plans of the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX go through reducing their weight in the global income pie of the social network to 45%, far, far away, from the 90% they represented in 2020. According to their calculations, in six years advertising will generate about 12,000 million dollars; not much more —comparatively speaking, of course— than the subscriptions, which would be close to 10,000 million dollars. Part of the revenue stream would come from other businesses, such as licensing.

Keys for 2028… and also some unknown

Another of Musk’s big bets would be to strengthen the payment business niche. Today, tips and purchases have a reduced weight in the company’s finances. The new owner of the network wants to expand this line of business so that it generates around $1.3 billion in 2028. Weeks ago, when he still had “only” 9.2% of the shares, Musk already pointed out his desire to promote Twitter Blue and even introduce new forms of payment with dogecoin.

One of the ways that Twitter could explore is the “economy of creators”, with economic rewards from its users or through a internal payment platform for donations. Whether they are activated in one way or another, the changes proposed by Musk have a clear objective: to boost the average income that the network obtains for each user. From 24.83 dollars in 2021, it wants to go to 30.22 in 2028. In short, another notable increase, of almost 22%, in just six years.

It will increase the profitability of tweeters… and their number. Musk wants to stretch the network’s social base to quadruple it. Not in ten years, nor by the end of this decade. No. His goal is once again in the medium term. In 2025 it wants to touch the 600 million users and that in 2028 it is already around 931, more, much more, than the 217 million from end of 2021.

how to pick up the presentation filtered by New York Times, most of these new “signings” would come thanks to the publicity and the potential of Twitter Blue. Specifically, the CEO of Tesla wants the premium platform of Twitter, which today is only available in some regions of the globeadd 69 million users in 2025. For 2028 it plans to be 159.

Not everything is clear in the presentation with which Musk draws the future of the social network to his investors. The document includes an X, an unknown: a new product that could be launched as early as 2023 and the tycoon expects it to reach nine million users in 2023 and 104 in 2028. What exactly is it? “X Subscribers” It is something that the report does not clarify, but Elon Musk himself has been reeling off ideas over the last few weeks. not long ago hinted at the possibility to activate an ad-free version, which would connect with its purpose of limiting its reach.

The document also anticipates other guidelines at the company’s internal level. For example, Musk proposes that in 2025 the Twitter workforce will be made up of 11,072 employees, considerably more than the current 7,500. The increase, yes, would be oscillating, with an increase in 2022, a decline in 2023.