Earlier last year, one of Twitter’s big investors was pushing for a leadership change in the social media network, with NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway telling NPR, “I think product development has been anemic. I think That their business model is flawed. But more than anything, you know, the least lie here is finding a full-time CEO.” The reference was to the fact that the co-founders jack dorsey Wasn’t just leading Twitter; He was also the CEO of financial services company Square.
Powerful investor Elliot was pushing for management change. A settlement was eventually reached, relieving Mr Dorsey, and Elliott and private equity firm Silver Lake for board seats. A Reuters report at the time stated that, “In reaching an agreement with Twitter, Elliott keeps a close eye on Dorsey, as well as giving the company more time to make long-term plans and take wrong steps,” Elliott said. said people familiar with his thinking.
After more than a year and a half, Twitter now has a full-time CEO. A few days ago the baton passed from Mr. Dorsey Parag Agarwal, its Chief Technology Officer. Just 10 years ago, Mr. Agarwal joined Twitter as a software engineer. it was after btech IIT-Bombay and a doctorate from Stanford University, where his thesis was about introducing “efficient techniques for the management and integration of uncertain data”. He only needed six years to become its CTO, a role in which, as Reuters reported, “he oversaw Twitter’s technology strategy and improved the pace of software development while advancing the use of machine learning across the company.” were responsible for”.
Although selection of a person of Indian origin for the role of global CEO is no longer a rarity, the development was a matter of great interest in India. what’s rare about Rise of Mr. Agarwal For the top job He is one of the few CTOs who have been pushed to the top job. Also, at 37 years old, he is the youngest to head an S&P 500 company.
Mr. Dorsey announced his resignation to his employees, writing that Mr. Agarwal “has been my pick for some time, because of how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every important decision that has made this company.” Mr. Dorsey added: “My trust in him as our CEO is very deep.”
news flow
Twitter has a huge influence in the flow of news in the world. But this clout has rarely translated into the kind of commercial success that, say, Facebook has managed to savor. Its ability to monetize substantially has almost always been under scrutiny. It has never managed to grow beyond a few hundred million users, much less than the billions of the Meta (Facebook) family of social networks. But its problems do not stop here. Like other social forums, it has been pulled up by authorities around the world for its interpretation of what is acceptable content and what is not. But we have a clue of the new CEO’s thought process on this. in an interview with MIT Technology Review Last year, Mr. Agarwal said, “Our approach towards this is not to attempt to identify or flag all possible misinformation. But our approach lies in trying to avoid the specific pitfalls that misleading information can cause.”
Mr. Agarwal, as head of tech, has been credited with accelerating implementation at a company that has faced criticism that it doesn’t roll out new features fast enough. And over the years, it has really added new elements to its primary offering. Changes include raising the character limit, building a Snapchat-like feature that ensures content disappears after 24 hours, creating a social audio feature a la Clubhouse, and introducing a subscription service. But they haven’t conclusively shifted Twitter’s growth path upwards.
Mr. Agarwal has also been instrumental in Mr. Dorsey’s pet project Bluesky, an effort to create a decentralized standard for social media. It is seen as a solution that promises to support freedom of expression while reducing the impact of abusive online behavior.
Relinquishing his role, Mr Dorsey said Twitter had finally split from a “founder-led” company, which he felt was “severely limiting and a single point of failure”. How this translates into the choices the new CEO makes remains to be seen.
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