‘We’re Running On Negative Cash Flow’ – Elon Musk Reveals How Twitter Has Lost Half Advert Revenue Since Purchase 

The owner of the micro-blogging platform Twitter, Elon Musk, has revealed how the social media platform has been running on negative cash flow.

According to Musk’s Twitter, the negative cash flow of the platform was due to the loss of about half of the advertising revenue since he purchased the platform last October.

Naija News gathered that Musk made this revelation in a tweet in response to a user giving suggestions on financing for the platform on Saturday.

The billionaire businessman, according to AFP, said, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.”

Twitter is thought to have around 200 million regular users, but it has suffered repeated technical failures since Musk bought the platform and sacked thousands of staff.

The development is coming barely a week after the newly launched social media application by Meta, owners of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Threads,  broke records with over 100 million sign-ups in four days.

Naija News reported last week that less than 24 hours after its launch, over 55 million users reportedly joined, Threads, as was gathered that millions of users, including Nigerians, joined the new social media platform within hours of its launch.

The new platform is said to be the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has recently faced many issues, especially with the introduction of new strict measures.

The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT last Wednesday and will run with no ads for now.

After four days after its launch, the app reportedly broke the record of AI tool ChatGPT for the fastest-growing consumer app.

According to reports, a data tracking website revealed that ChatGPT took two months to hit the 100 million user mark, and video-sharing app TikTok took nine months; Instagram took two and a half years to reach that mark after its 2010 launch.

But industry experts say. Threads are finding it much more easier because it is linked to Instagram, which has more than one billion regular users.

Online data service Quiver Quantitative reported that the app passed 100 million users at 0700 GMT on Monday.

Other websites using a count of the “badges” received by Instagram users who have downloaded Threads reckoned the mark had passed earlier.

Meanwhile, this platform reported earlier that indications are that social media giant Twitter might sue Meta over “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s trade secrets and IP.

It was also learned that the social media company threatens to sue Meta for scraping Twitter’s data.

This was disclosed in a cease-and-desist letter sent on Wednesday to Mark Zuckerberg by Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro.

This platform understands that the allegations center on trade secrets shared by ex-Twitter employees hired by Meta but also hints that Meta may have been scraping Twitter’s data, violating the terms of service.

Confirming reports of an impending lawsuit, Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote on his social media page: “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”