Twitter's new CEO Yaccarino 'inspired by Musk's vision, vows to transform the platform

Billionaire Elon Musk earlier welcomed a veteran ad executive Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of San Francisco-based Twitter. Responding to Musk, she said that she has been inspired by the Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk's vision to create a brighter future for the microblogging site. Yaccarino added that she is excited to help to transform Twitter.  

Musk on Friday, announced that he is hiring Yaccarino to be the new CEO of Twitter now called X Corp. Yaccarino's role will be focused mainly on operating the company's business, while he will focus on product design and new technology.   

“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”

'I've long been inspired by Musk's vision': Twitter's new CEO

Speaking publicly for the first time about her role, Yaccarino revealed last week that she was in talks to become the next chief executive of Twitter. Musk had donned the role of the social media company's chief executive since his $44 billion buyout of Twitter last October. He, although, had indicated on numerous occasions that he's on the lookout for a new CEO. As he officially announced NBCUniversal’s Yaccarino will take up the role owing to her vast experience in the advertising industry, the latter expressed keen intention to transform Twitter and achieve the SpaceX boss' vision for the company. 

"I've long been inspired by [Musk's] vision to create a brighter future. I'm excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!" Yaccarino tweeted.

During her role as the chief for Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal, Yaccarino spent several years modernising the firm's ad business. She noted that she is committed to Twitter’s future, adding that user feedback is vital to building Twitter 2.0 to regain the previously plunged ad revenue since Musk's takeover. She will also be focused on relieving the company's debt load. Advertisers have fled the platform or either paused their spending after Musk purchased the platform. They are also highly unlikely to revive the ads soon having launched a boycott of Musk's free speech push, and his paid subscription service for Twitter’s “blue check."

Brands question the imposters that will mess up their reputation should the ads be placed beside unverified accounts with blue ticks. They are widely questioning Twitter's identity verification policy. This invokes the incident with Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company whose stock prices tumbled after a fake account claimed that the company will give away free insulin.

Just 11 days after Musk sealed the deal on October 27 last year, ad sales accounted for 90 per cent of Twitter’s overall revenue. Within two weeks, major brands such as General Motors, Volkswagen Group, General Mills, Pfizer, Mondelēz International, and dozens of others halted the ads on Twitter. By November end, nearly half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers were no longer advertising on the website. Musk this week said Yaccarino will help him build an “everything app" that will offer a variety of additional services such as peer-to-peer payments. He underscored that digital ads will be the core focus of the business.