Twitter Inc. has shut down two of its three India offices and has asked its staff to work from home, underscoring Elon Musk’s mission to slash costs and get the struggling social media service in the black.
Last year, Twitter fired over 90% of its 200-plus staff in India, and closed its offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, people aware of the matter said. The company operates an office in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru that mostly houses engineers.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has fired staff and shut offices around the world as part of an effort to get Twitter financially stable by late 2023. Yet India is regarded as a key growth market for US tech giants from Meta Platforms Inc. to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which are making long-term bets on the world’s fastest-growing internet arena. Musk’s latest moves suggest he’s attaching less importance to the Indian market for now.
Twitter has grown in past years into one of India’s most important public forums, home to heated political discourse and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 86.5 million followers. Yet the company's revenue isn’t significant, which also has to contend with strict content regulations and increasingly savvy local competition.
Since the $44 billion buyout, Twitter has failed to pay millions in rent for its San Francisco headquarters and London offices, been sued by multiple contractors over unpaid services, and auctioned off everything from bird statues to espresso machines to raise money.
Musk has also openly floated the idea of bankruptcy, and cited a “massive drop” in revenue as advertisers fled over concerns about Twitter’s ability to weed out undesirable content. The platform has also experienced significant glitches and outrages, most recently.
