In a live chat earlier this month, Elon Musk said that But in an interview this week in… Code conferenceX’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, seemed caught off guard by a question about this plan, as she asked the interviewer to repeat the question first, then asked if Musk had already said whether Think about it?
CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, who was conducting the interview, wanted to know how this shift would affect X’s business, which today relies largely on advertising revenue. Yaccarino, who joins X from NBCU where she was head of the advertising and partnerships group, would certainly have known if (Or at least keep the robots away!)
When asked how many X users would be lost with such a change, Yaccarino seemed confused. I asked Boorstin to clarify whether Musk had said that X would move to this model, or rather whether he had just floated the idea.
(For your information, Musk announced in a live broadcast conversation With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 18, the company was “moving to a small monthly payment” for use of the It is difficult for spammers to take advantage of their bots.)
When Yaccarino did not directly answer the question, Boorstin pressed, asking whether the CEO of Company X had been consulted about the decision.
“We talk about everything,” Yaccarino answered vaguely, again avoiding the answer.
The interviewer noted that Yaccarino’s background was in advertising — a point I made because it would be surprising if Musk made his decision on charging fees without the former CEO’s input.
But Yaccarino cut her off.
“why not?” She responded somewhat combatively. “Do you think Elon brought me into the company to be head of advertising… or do you think he brought me in to run the company and deliver the best possible experience to our users?”
She then went on to explain the future of X, a platform that planned to expand its horizons in several ways — by allowing users to watch videos, for example, and soon make transactions. It also touted its previous experience in pushing established media companies to innovate.
“This is a complete experience where there is no substitute. There is no substitute for X,” Yaccarino said.
But since the issue of user subscriptions had not yet been addressed, Boorstin tried again, asking whether Yaccarino thought subscription-based X was a good plan, whether she was consulted, and whether she thought X should still retain some free tier or no. She also wondered whether Yaccarino was really taking on the COO role, given that X’s product teams still report to Musk. Or perhaps a CEO in name only.
“Yes, not nice,” Yakkarino replied, referring to the recent comment about her lack of strength, before continuing to explain. “[Musk] Manages the product. Manages technology. “He leads a team of exceptionally talented engineers… Who wouldn’t want Elon Musk sitting next to them managing the product?”
Some of the attendees raised their hands and laughter was heard.
However, unfortunately, the X CEO did not directly answer any of the questions regarding the proposed X subscription model that Musk discussed.
If anything, her responses indicate that she either wasn’t aware of such a plan or didn’t think it was beyond the idea stage at this point. It wasn’t clear that she understood what the intent was, because she couldn’t address the issue of bots or how the fees worked to keep them out of service.
Of course, as a former advertising executive, she probably didn’t want to scare off X’s advertisers into thinking that X’s days as a free, ad-supported service were limited in some capacity.
Overall, the interview was a mess, with Yaccarino appearing confused by basic questions about X’s business as well as those related to Musk’s activism, whether that be his proposed lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), subscriptions, or Hiring for Election Integrity. In reality, She denied that X was dissolving X’s election integrity team Hours after Musk posted on X that they were “gone.”
She also doesn’t seem to have a tight grip on X’s user numbers, at one point saying that X has “200 to 250.” [million]“Daily active users…something like that.”
It also said that X had 540 million monthly active users globally, although Musk said just days ago that number was 550 million.
The biggest takeaway from the discussion was that Yaccarino and Musk may not have been quite on the same page when it came to running X and that in some of X’s biggest moves, the CEO was out of the loop.