Employee Layover Occurs as Elon Musk Shuts Down 2 of 3 Twitter Offices in India
Elon Musk’s quest to reduce expenses and turn the faltering social media site into a profit is highlighted by Twitter Inc.’s decision to close two of its three locations in India and order its workers to work from home.
According to persons with knowledge of the situation, Twitter closed its operations in the financial powerhouse of Mumbai and the political capital of New Delhi after terminating more than 90% of its 200+ employees in India. The company still maintains a location in Bengaluru, a southern IT hotspot, where it primarily employs engineers, according to the sources, who declined to be named because the information is confidential.
In a drive to stabilize Twitter’s finances by late 2023, billionaire CEO Musk has sacked employees and closed offices across the globe. But for U.S. software behemoths like Meta Platforms Inc. and Google, which are placing long-term investments in the quickest internet markets around the world, India is seen as a key growth area. Given Elon Musk’s most recent actions, the market is less important to him right now.
In recent years, Twitter has developed into one of India’s most significant public platforms, including acrimonious political debates and the 86.5 million supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nevertheless, Musk’s company doesn’t make much money there because it also needs to deal with severe local rivalry and content rules. A sought comment from Twitter didn’t initially receive a response.
Concerns regarding Twitter’s ability to maintain operations and control content were raised as a result of the mass departure of employees, many of whom had been sacked since Elon Musk’s takeover. This week, Musk stated that it might take him until the conclusion of the year to stabilize the business and ensure its financial soundness.
Following the $44 billion acquisition, Twitter has been challenged by numerous employees for unpaid operations, has not paid thousands of dollars in the leases for its San Francisco headquarters as well as London locations, and has sold off everything from bird sculptures to espresso makers to earn money.
Elon Musk has also publicly discussed going bankrupt, citing a “huge loss” in revenue from sponsors leaving because of uncertainty about Twitter’s capacity to screen out objectionable content. Significant bugs and outrages have also occurred on the service, most notably earlier last month.
