Microsoft will remove Twitter from its advertising platform next week, about two months after Twitter revealed that it will charge a minimum of $42,000 per month to API customers, which include companies and research institutes.
According to a Wired story, users began getting emails regarding its new pricing information in early March, and the new pricing plan “prices out nearly everyone.”
Microsoft has the money to pay Twitter what it wants, with a $2.15 trillion market valuation and nearly $100 billion cash on hand at the end of last year, so the move looks to be a bit of a statement, even if Microsoft is refusing to expand further on its choice.
Musk outraged, vows to sue Microsoft on Twitter
It specifically informed its clients today that “Starting on April 25, 2023, Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter,” as well as “Digital Marketing Center (DMC) will no longer support Twitter starting on April 25, 2023”.
Users will no longer be able to access their Twitter account or compose, schedule, or otherwise manage tweets using Microsoft’s free social media management tool as a result of the changes.
Unsurprisingly, Twitter CEO Elon Musk is outraged by the move, vowing to sue on Twitter today.
Musk, presumably referring to Microsoft’s licensing agreement with the AI outfit OpenAI — which trained its powerful AI models on a “vast corpus of diverse text data from the internet“, according to OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT — tweeted today about Microsoft’s decision, “They trained illegally using Twitter data.” It’s time to file a lawsuit.”
They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
There is some animosity between Microsoft and Twitter. Microsoft has spent billions of dollars on OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015 and then departed three years later, in addition to negotiating a license agreement. He has continued to criticize it, particularly on Twitter. He has just disclosed plans for a competing venture.
In any case, Musk’s decision comes at a bad time for him, since he has been trying harder to win back advertisers after apparently losing more than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers following his takeover of the network in late October.
He met onstage in Miami yesterday with NBCUniversal’s chief of global advertising and partnerships, allegedly saying during the interview that he is open to hearing real concerns advertisers may have about Twitter, but that he will not make changes he does not believe in.
In the meantime, when asked on Twitter today about Musk’s decision to charge so much for Twitter’s API access — one entrepreneur with a controversial past noted that “in some cases,” the move is killing traffic to Twitter from outside sources — Musk responded, “I’m open to ideas, but ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads), and then selling our data to others isn’t a winning solution.”
I’m open to ideas, but ripping off the Twitter database, demonetizing it (removing ads) and then selling our data to others isn’t a winning solution
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Microsoft’s action comes at a difficult moment for Twitter, which has been constantly seeking to increase income through new techniques and minimize expenses, notably through major layoffs and the sale of office equipment.
Weeks after Musk took over as CEO of Twitter, the firm lost a significant portion of its top 1,000 advertisers due to worries over content moderation on the social media network.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s decision to remove Twitter from its advertising platform is a significant move given the size of its market valuation and cash on hand. The decision follows Twitter’s announcement to charge a minimum of $42,000 per month to API customers, which reportedly prices out nearly everyone.
Microsoft’s move appears to be a statement, but the company has not commented further on the decision. The move is likely to have a significant impact on users, who will no longer be able to access their Twitter account or manage tweets using Microsoft’s free social media management service.
The situation has been further complicated by Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s outrage, who has vowed to sue Microsoft on Twitter. This decision comes at a difficult time for Twitter, which has been trying to increase income and minimize expenses, including major layoffs and selling office equipment, and has also faced concerns over content moderation on the platform.
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