Big news here, a new leader in the Twitter
sphere. Elon Musk, handing the reins over to
Linda Yacono who's going to run the social media site
. A Musk will enter a new role as chief
technology officer and executive chair and China News, senior
reporter Michelle Castillo joins me now with more. And
Michelle, you are our resident a guru here.
And so what you know about Yacono and how can
she be of help to Twitter? Well, Kristen
, this is a really interesting move for Twitter,
but it's one that's sure to bring it back to
its advertising roots. So Yano comes from NBC Universal
where she's been since 2011. She's led the company's
global ad division and has been instrumental in the industry
when it comes to calling for standardized measurement. She
also helped launch a supported streaming service network, uh
Peacock, but most notably, she's trusted by major
CMO S and advertising agencies, meaning she could bring
those ad dollars back to Twitter. See, Rio
currently oversees more than 2000 people in her division and
NBC Universal has generated over$100 billion in ad sales
since she joined the company. This is a really
interesting move for Twitter considering Musk was so anti advertising
before he tried to move the company to a more
subscription based model. Let's remember he moved features that
people loved including verification A K that blue check mark
under the Twitter blue program which cost$11 a month
. But he's shown signs. He's warming up to
the idea of advertising just this past April. He
took the stage with Acari at the possible conference in
Miami there. They talked about the marketing potential for
Twitter and how the platform is still key for cultural
moments. Now, let's remember a sales used to
make up 90% of Twitter's revenue before must purchase the
company. But even back then, there were concerns
over a performance even before that tech executive took over
. So marketers had previously told me they were worried
if Twitter could actually drive people to buy a product
versus just learn about it. And other brands also
told me that they were concerned about the content on
the platform. Now, Rio's expertise in this arena
is sure to. So some of those fears,
however, she's joining Twitter at a time when advertising
is going through a bit of a rough patch.
So due to macroeconomic conditions including inflation and fears of
a recession, brands are pulling back marketing budgets and
a growth is expected to slow down this year,
5.9% compared to last year. That's according to a
buying group group M there's also increased competition for marketing
dollars with streamers including Netflix and Disney Plus adding advertising
to their movies and shows. So it's going to
be a tall order. It definitely is and and
a chief marketing officer uh taking over the role as
chief executive, right, which comes with a whole
host of other responsibilities. So it's interesting, clearly
, her track record, I think at NBC Universal
speaks for itself. But what does this mean for
Musk Michelle? So don't expect him to go anywhere
. Kristen. He said in a tweet, he
was excited to transform Twitter into quote the everything app
. So he's definitely going to be involved. And
yesterday Musk said he was going to transition to CTO
and executive chair, which you pointed out that means
he's going to be in charge of products, software
and system operations. OK. I'm Michelle Castillo with
the breakdown. You know, I think I'm most
excited to see how it affects the user experience.
I'm just gonna say that Michelle. Thank you.