Twitter user signups at all-time high; 66% more than last year, says CEO Musk

A slide published by Twitter CEO Elon Musk on his account is seen in this picture from social media released on November 26, 2022.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Twitter Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has said that new user signups to the social media platform are at an “all-time high”, as he struggles with a mass exodus of advertisers and users fleeing to other platforms over concerns about verification and hate speech.

Signups were averaging over two million per day in the last seven days as of November 16, up 66% compared to the same week in 2021, Mr. Musk said in a tweet late on Saturday.

He also said that user active minutes were at a record high, averaging nearly 8 billion active minutes per day in the last seven days as of November 15, an increase of 30% in comparison to the same week last year.

Hate speech impressions decreased as of November 13 compared to October of last year.

Reported impersonations on the platform spiked earlier this month, before and in wake of the Twitter Blue launch, according to Mr. Musk.

Also read: Twitter to launch colour coded “Verified” feature next week, Musk says

Mr. Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company, has said that buying Twitter would speed up his ambition to create an “everything app” called X.

Mr. Musk’s “Twitter 2.0 The Everything App” will have features like encrypted direct messages (DMs), longform tweets and payments, according to the tweet.

Advertisers on Twitter, including big companies such as General Motors, Mondelez International, Volkswagen AG, have paused advertising on the platform, as they grapple with the new boss.

Mr. Musk has said that Twitter was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” from the advertiser retreat, blaming a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing the platform’s top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation.

Also read: Twitter India sees significant layoffs; Musk blames ‘activists’ for revenue drop

Activists are urging Twitter’s advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after Mr. Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. president Donald Trump.

Hundreds of Twitter employees are believed to have quit the beleaguered company, following an ultimatum by Mr. Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity,” or leave.

The company earlier in November laid off half its workforce, with teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics being gutted, as well as some product and engineering teams.