Report: Twitter hit by 40% revenue drop after ad pause

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According to reports, staff were informed that more than 500 advertisers paused spending after Elon Musk took over in October.

Main source of income

Twitter’s main source of income is advertising with $5.1bn in revenue in 2021. But advertisers pulled out after concerns of a rise in hate speech on the platform and an increase in impersonator accounts after the platform relaunched its blue tick system.

Twitter brings back political ads

4 Jan 2023

In another report staff were told in a meeting that Twitter’s revenue for the fourth quarter fell by 35%.

In December Musk said they were facing a negative cashflow situation of $3bn a year but said they should make a cashflow break even after cutting costs including the retrenchment of more than 5,000 employees.

Bringing back political ads

Earlier this month Musk said he will bring back political advertising to Twitter after it took a three-year hiatus.

“We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we're relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks,” Twitter Safety wrote.

It’s been a tough year for Twitter since Musk’s $44bn bid to buy the platform was accepted in April. Since the purchase he has been criticised for many decisions such as retrenching staff and creating a paid-for verification system.