Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, will step down as CEO of the social media company after six years. Parag Agrawal, the company’s former CTO, has assumed the role since November 29.
In his resignation letter posted on Twitter, Dorsey said he wanted the company to be freed from the vision and control of its co-founders, calling them “serious restrictions”.
Dorsey was Twitter’s first CEO from 2006 to 2008, and returned in 2015 after a stint as manager of the company. Since returning, Dorsey has had to answer a series of questions about his commitment to Twitter, as he is also the CEO of Square, a financial services company he founded in 2009.
Jack Dorsey
Last year, Dorsey faced a serious challenge from investor Jesse Cohn of Elliott Management, which had acquired a part of Twitter and had been trying to get rid of Dorsey. Of course, after a protracted battle, Cohn was ultimately unsuccessful and resigned from Twitter’s board in April 2021.
But Dorsey decided to leave Twitter when the platform was in a very high position. While Twitter’s 211 million daily users are hard to compare with Facebook’s nearly 2 billion (as well as those of Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest), Twitter has become an essential platform for news, politics and live events. It also gained special attention from world leaders, especially former US President Donald Trump (now banned for inciting violence during the January 6, 2021 uprising at the Capitol). .
While facing a wave of misinformation and hate speech on the platform, as well as pressure from world leaders, Dorsey remains focused on improving the ability to advertise and recommend new products to generate revenue streams. Twitter’s stock has been doing well since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, doubling since its March 2020 low, and recently launched a subscription version of its app called Twitter Blue, attract the attention of many users.
Why choose Square over Twitter?
Away from Twitter, Dorsey is now likely to turn his full attention to the financial firm Square he co-founded in 2009.
Square is a payments company that manages point-of-sale transactions for many small businesses. In the US, for example, when buying a coffee at a local coffee shop, you can use Square. It also owns Cash App, a peer-to-peer payments app that competes with PayPal’s Venmo. And it recently expanded into e-commerce by buying Afterpay, an Australian pioneer in buy-now-pay later, for $29 billion. It also owns the web hosting service Weebly, the music streaming service Tidal, and until recently owned the food delivery app Caviar.
Square turned out to be more stable than Twitter financially.
In terms of profits, while Twitter has started to turn a profit every quarter in 2021, the platform has lost $1.14 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, Square’s business has remained completely stable. The company posted a gross profit of $1.13 billion for the third quarter of 2021 alone and has remained profitable for many years.
And while Twitter’s financial success has largely been limited to its ability to sell digital advertising, a market dominated by Google and Facebook, Square has the entire user payment system in its hands. consumption. Square is in a dominant position in traditional sales, e-commerce, peer-to-peer and, most recently, entering the crypto market. While Twitter is tinkering with building new revenue streams, especially through offering subscriptions, Square is simply reaping more money with low-risk and higher-return strategies.
Bet on Cryptocurrency
Leaving Twitter may also imply another personal reason for this CEO.
Jack Dorsey is a huge fan of cryptocurrencies. In August, Dorsey proclaimed bitcoin as something that would “unify a deeply divided nation… and ultimately the world.” He also predicts bitcoin will become the world’s currency in the next decade and declares it a “major part” of Twitter’s future.
Twitter is not the place for Dorsey to satisfy his passion for crypto.
But, Twitter might not be the right home for his crypto ambitions. The platform still lags behind its competitors in the e-commerce sector. Although the company has launched a separate team to work on blockchain projects and donate crypto to content creators, there is still a long and difficult way to satisfy ambitions and passions. by Dorsey.
Meanwhile, Square can provide Dorsey with the financial foundation he needs to realize his crypto-utopian dreams. Square has invested heavily in crypto, the company holds about 5% of its cash reserves in bitcoin. It last bought another $170 million in bitcoin in February 2021. Square’s Cash app now allows users to buy and sell bitcoin on its platform, and it’s also working on a non-financial platform. focus, even consider building a bitcoin mining system.
Therefore, only through Square, not Twitter, can Dorsey bet on the future of crypto.
Refer QZ
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