Again dozens of redundancies at Twitter: boss of subscription service Blue also fired | News

It’s alright according to ‘NEWS’ about 10 percent of the 2,300 people who, according to Twitter owner Elon Musk, still worked for the social media company at the beginning of this year. In November 2021, the billionaire promised that there would be no more rounds of layoffs. By then, about half of the 7,500 employees had already been laid off.

According to the newspaper, the layoffs fell in several departments. For example, people who were involved in developing Twitter functions (so-called product managers) were fired, as well as data scientists. In addition, engineers who keep Twitter online lost their jobs. Of the 30-person team that runs the services that make Twitter money, there are less than eight employees left.

The layoffs include notable names. This is how Martijn de Kuijper lost his job. The Dutchman founded Revue, with which online newsletters can be written. That service bought Twitter in 2021, but Musk had the platform closed on January 18, after de Kuijper was the only one of his team not to be fired. “My Revue journey is now really over,” he tweeted Sunday morning.

Also fired is Esther Crawford. She stood out because she took on the Twitter Blue project after the big round of layoffs in November. That subscription service was supposed to help cover the lost advertising revenue, but never really broke through after a messy rollout.

During that period, a photo of a sleeping Crawford also appeared on the floor of a Twitter office. “The worst impression you can get from seeing me go all in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake. Those who scoff and scoff are necessarily on the sidelines, and not in the arena. I am very proud of the team that has come through so much noise and chaos.” tweet them about it now.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought Twitter in October for $44 billion. That happened after months of legal battle because he withdrew after the original offer. Since the acquisition was finalized, users have been complaining about connectivity issues and Twitter has been sued for not paying the rent.

Friday last week journalists broke the news that employees no longer have access to essential internal communication platforms. “We haven’t paid the bill for Slack. Now everyone is barely working. Penny wise, pound foolish”, one employee speculated anonymously, with an English phrase pointing to the effect of misguided frugality.

Twitter has not yet commented on the news, despite a request for comment from news agency Reuters. Musk himself has not yet responded directly to the round of layoffs, but posted the tweet below on Sunday.