At townhall, Musk wanted Twitter to be like TikTok, WeChat, have a billion users: Report

During a virtual town hall meeting, Elon Musk reportedly told Twitter employees that he wants the social media app to have a billion users while applauding TikTok for being entertaining, as well as China’s WeChat for keeping people engaged.

There are 229 million daily active users on Twitter till the first quarter of 2022.

The Verge, citing employees who heard the remarks, reported that Musk wants Twitter to replicate the success model of TikTok and WeChat in order to target one-billion users and that the app should offer more utility and make sure “people are very entertained and informed”.

He also made a comparison withWeChat, the super app in China that mixes social media with payments, games, and even ride-hailing.

“There’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China,” Musk was quoted as saying after joining 10 minutes late to the virtual meeting via his phone on Thursday.

“You basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success.”

He also reportedly praised TikTok’s algorithm for not being “boring,” saying “we could hone Twitter in the same way to be interesting.”

He specifically placed emphasis on Twitter being better at surfacing news.

“I think Twitter can be much better about informing people of serious issues,” he was quoted as saying.

When asked about Twitter’s potential in five to 10 years, Musk said the company should be “contributing to a stronger longer lasting civilization where we are better able to understand the nature of reality.”

On layoffs, Musk said, “Right now, costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation,” according to a long Twitter thread curated by the New York Times.

However, he took less of a hard line on remote work than he’s done for his other businesses, where he created a stir recently by saying employees unwilling to return to a 40-hour in-office work week should leave.

Those businesses are more physically hands on, Twitter is a bit different, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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