In his discussions with Twitter employees, Elon Musk said he wanted the number of Twitter users to reach one billion people. To achieve that goal, Musk wants Twitter to emulate TikTok and WeChat.
When asked how Twitter could increase the number of users and increase engagement, Musk said the social media platform had to offer more functionality and ensure that all users were entertained and not left out of information.
The richest man in the world then gave an example of WeChat, a super app from China that combines social media with online payments, games, and ride hailing.
"There's no equivalent to WeChat outside of China," Musk said in a virtual meeting with Twitter employees, as quoted from The Verge, Friday (17/6/2022).
"You guys basically live on WeChat in China. If we can emulate it on Twitter, we'll be a huge success," he continued.
Musk also praised the TikTok algorithm which he called not boring. He suggested Twitter could be polished like TikTok to make it more attractive because the company with the bird logo was already superior in presenting the latest news and news.
"I think Twitter could be better at informing people about serious issues," Musk said.
During the discussion, Musk also reiterated his vision of making Twitter a platform that relies on paid services but doesn't completely abandon the ad business. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla even indicated that Twitter users would have to pay if they wanted their accounts verified.
As the boss of two big companies, Musk has surprisingly said that he wants to have a bigger role on Twitter. Musk said he still doesn't know what position he will hold, but he wants to be involved in product development and wants the Twitter team to consider his input in developing new features.
But right now the process of Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter is still unclear. Musk said the deal was postponed until Twitter could substantiate its claims about the number of bot and spam accounts on its platform.
Meanwhile, Twitter admits that it still wants to continue the transaction process until it is complete. Not long ago, they shared their internal data about tweets and user accounts with the Musk team.