Elon Musk’s Twitter is on a layoff spree as the chief continues to sack employees, this time from the sales and engineering departments. According to The Verge report, dozens of employees were fired last week marking the third round of layoffs.
Musk promised employees at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters in November that it would not terminate employment anymore. He had been constantly focusing on changes in the platform’s algorithms.
Meanwhile, Musk has given an internal directive to revamp how ads are targeted in Twitter’s main feed. He plans to change the platform’s ad targeting to operate like Google search ads, that target keywords rather than user activity and profile.
Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
We're taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search.
This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.
Also read: Twitter to open source its algorithm
Musk set the target to implement these changes within one week. Ex-employee Marcin Kadluczka who directly reported to Musk before being laid off said in a tweet that it is not feasible.
Thank you tweeps 🙏
— Marcin (@marcinkadluczka) February 19, 2023
End of 7 years at Twitter!@elonmusk 🙏 for learnings and energy in last 3 months to improve Twitter & Ads!
I believe Twitter can really improve ads in 2-3 months (no necessarily in a week though) 📈💵
Wish I could be actually fired not just deactivated 🤷🏼♂️ pic.twitter.com/ygfrIfwZXY
Former Twitter ads head Bruce Falck also reacted to Musk’s tweet.
As the former lead for Ads at Twitter, I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he's talking about https://t.co/Hw4TfkFNJH
— bruce.falck() 🦗 (@boo) February 17, 2023
Amid layoffs, the company is also looking for ways to cut down expenses. The microblogging platform is letting go of Slack, a chat tool, reported Platformer. According to a Bloomberg report, the company shut down its offices in Mumbai and Delhi and ordered staff to work from home.
Also read: What is Aadhaar Mitra?
Published on February 24, 2023
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.