The new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, sent a E-mail employees who are telecommuting to order them to return to the office immediately, for at least 40 hours a week, and warned of “tough times” ahead.
“Sorry, this is my first E-mail for the entire company, but there is no way to tone down the message. Without significant subscription revenue, Twitter will most likely not survive the next crisis. We need half of our revenue to come from subscriptions,” Musk said.
Two missives Wednesday night seen by the Associated Press (AP) news agency marked the philanthropist’s message to employees who survived last week’s layoffs.
Musk told employees that “the priority for the next 10 days” will be developing and launching Twitter’s new $7.99 subscription service, which includes a blue tick next to the names of paid members, the badge previously being just for verified accounts.
The businessman also indicated in the ‘e-mail’ that “teleworking is no longer allowed” and that the way forward is “arduous and will require a lot of work to get ahead”, but indicated that he would personally review any exception request.
On Wednesday, Musk said he plans to introduce a payment system on the social network and offer other financial services such as debit cards and bank accounts.
The plan was announced in a public conversation on Twitter Spaces, the social network’s live audio service, in which the philanthropist confirmed his intention to transform the platform into a kind of “app for everything”, offering, among other things messaging systems. payments and purchases.
The entrepreneur hinted that, at an early stage, these services would only be available to subscribers of Twitter Blue, the paid subscription that will now also grant its subscribers the blue visa that was previously reserved for verified accounts.
Last Friday, a week after being bought by Elon Musk, Twitter promised to lay off half of its workers, while launching large projects and fighting against users, advertisers and associations concerned about the transformation of the influential social network.
“Around 50% of employees will be affected” by the ongoing layoffs at Twitter, according to a document sent to employees of the social network, to which France-Presse (AFP) had access.
The Californian company, which had some 7,500 employees at the end of October, notified thousands of people by E-mailexplaining that the objective is “to improve the health of the company”.
Twitter also announced the temporary closure of offices, to “ensure the security of each employee, as well as Twitter’s systems and data.”
Source: TSF
