“The future of Twitter”… Every Twitter thread last week. ICYMI: Elon Musk now runs Twitter (in his words: “the bird is freed”). Top execs have left the company and advertisers are skittish. After GM paused Twitter campaigns, ad giant IPG recommended its clients pause their spend too. Meanwhile, Elon seems focused on cutting costs and boosting non-ad revenue: On Friday, Twitter laid off half its employees, and over the weekend started rolling out an $8/month charge for blue check marks. There are many opinions about the Twitter-quisition, but only time will tell if it’ll help the embattled platform rise or sink.
Giving mixed signals… US employers added 261K jobs in October, and there are roughly two open jobs for every unemployed worker (a sign the Fed’s hikes aren’t cooling the economy enough). But job growth slowed and unemployment ticked up to 3.7%. Microsoft, Netflix, Snap, and Meta are laying off employees, and Amazon and (reportedly) Apple have frozen corporate hiring. Last week Lyft and Stripe also announced cuts. Non-tech industries may also slow: last week Ford offered buyouts to underperformers.