Toni Dimaano Tech 02.22.2023 02:Feb AM EST

Elon Musk Continues Twitter Layoffs Despite Saying Cuts Were Final

Elon Musk assembled Twitter's remaining staff members at its San Francisco headquarters on November 21 to inform them that layoffs, which had eliminated about two-thirds of the workforce in a couple of weeks, were finally done.

However, according to The Verge, it does not seem like the layoffs are over as dozens of employees across sales and engineering were laid off last week.

Musk's Plan To Change Twitter Continues

While the layoffs are happening, the CEO has given internal instructions to redesign how advertising is targeted in Twitter's main feed within a week.

This is part of the Twitter chief's strategy to address what he has dubbed "the worst ad relevance on Earth,"

Musk wants to modify Twitter's ad targeting so that it functions more like Google's search advertisements, which focus on a user's search history rather than their activity and profile information.

It is a strategy that works well for search engines, where users go to express a clear desire to locate something.

However, while it has helped Google grow into one of the most successful companies in history, it has not worked for a social media business until now.

Marcin Kadluczka, the fired engineering manager for monetization who directly answered to Musk, hinted to the impossibility of the one-week goal in a tweet on Saturday.

"I believe Twitter can really improve ads in 2-3 months (no necessarily in a week though)," Kadluczka tweet says.

According to The Verge, since the CEO acquired the business, Musk has placed a lot of effort into enhancing Twitter's advertising.

It is notable that he was right to point out that Twitter's ads are less targeted and efficient than those of its rivals.

Nevertheless, as others with a greater understanding of the trade-offs have pointed out, it is uncertain if changing targeting to be keyword-driven like Google advertisements will actually increase the quality of Twitter's advertising.

Musk Has Also Shut Down Offices In India

According to reports, the social media company employed roughly 800 sales and marketing staff as of last month, but the exact number of job layoffs remains unknown.

However, aside from laying off a significant number of employees in the sales and engineering department at the San Francisco headquarters, Musk is also set to close Twitter's offices in India.

The social networking company recently instructed its personnel to work from home and closed its headquarters in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Despite this, The Economic Times reports that it continues to run out of an engineering-filled office in Bengaluru.

The action is purportedly a part of the company's efforts to reduce expenses and turn around the faltering microblogging service's financial situation.

The microblogging service made a dozen more job layoffs public last month as part of broader cost-cutting initiatives in its Dublin and Singapore offices.

Late last year, just after Musk acquired the platform in a $44 billion deal, the company terminated the employment of about 3,500 workers.