New Delhi: Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive officer of X, the platform once called Twitter, has officially stepped down almost two years after she was appointed by Elon Musk. She is leaving at a time when the company is still experiencing turbulence with major product changes but still having major problems in re-establishing its advertising business and brand image as a whole.
Yaccarino, an ex-advertising executive at NBCUniversal, was hired at an important point in 2023 to stabilise X and bring back advertisers following the controversial takeover by Musk. In a resignation post on the platform, she said her tenure at X was incredible and lauded the team for bringing about what she termed a historic business turnaround.
Restore advertiser confidence
The hiring of Yaccarino was regarded as a strategic move to appease the concerns of the advertisers after a series of boycotts and the loss of ad revenue. She added functionality such as Community Notes and increased creator partnerships and assisted in launching such services as X Money and connected TV apps. Nonetheless, the ad revenue is still at about 50 per cent of the revenue in 2021 despite these efforts.
Elon Musk tended to challenge her leadership with his public comments, such as his criticisms of the advertisers that had stopped spending on the platform. In an especially dramatic example in 2023, Musk made more comments that worsened the relationship with major advertising partners, spoiling the efforts of Yaccarino to establish trust.
Bold changes and ongoing setbacks
Yaccarino was also the main figure in promoting Musk to propel X as an everything app that extends beyond social media to payments, video and beyond. Nevertheless, the general shift has been gradual, and most users and advertisers are yet to determine the trend of the platform.
Yaccarino had been spotted at the Cannes Lions Festival just weeks before tendering her resignation, where she was used to promote new creator tools and exclusive content, such as a podcast with Serena and Venus Williams. She is leaving X without a clear successor, and the firm is yet to announce who would succeed her as the CEO.
Musk faces broader challenges
The departure of Yaccarino is another problem that Elon Musk has to deal with. In June, his political relationship with Donald Trump broke down, and he publicly broke and founded a new political party. In the meantime, Tesla is losing sales, and SpaceX is experiencing failure after failure of its Starship rocket.
With the departure of Yaccarino, people are asking where the company is heading and whether it can achieve greater ambitions for the platform under Musk with controversies and financial strains to deal with.