Elon Musk is reportedly shutting down many of Twitter’s international branches as he continues to squeeze costs and find a profitable model for the company.
Sources close to the situation said that at least 12 international Twitter branches have closed or are in the process of closing, with several more U.S. branches likely to close in the coming weeks. This series of moves could also result in in hundreds more Twitter employees losing their jobs. Since Elon Musk took over two months ago, the company has laid off or fired thousands of employees, and many have left voluntarily.
The people familiar with the matter said the closures include branches in Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Africa, where employees were laid off in November of last year. Most branches in Australia, South Korea and Europe and India have also closed or are likely to close in the coming weeks, the sources said.
The landlord of Twitter’s Singapore office building has not commented on the closure, and it has been reported that the large Singapore office, which is Twitter’s headquarters in Asia, may also be closed because of unpaid rent. Some of the other branches are also closing due to Twitter’s failure to pay rent.
Twitter previously had more than 20 international branches. They are currently discussing internally a significant reduction in the number of branches, keeping them only in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles in the U.S., and London, Tokyo and Dublin overseas, people familiar with the matter said.
A Twitter spokesperson has not yet commented.
The last time Twitter opened a new branch was in Ghana in 2021, the first time they landed in Africa in an official capacity.
Former company executive Kayvon Beykpour wrote on the company’s blog at the time, “To truly serve the public conversation, we must become more deeply integrated into the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations that take place every day on the continent.”
Twitter Singapore, which opened in 2015, even scaled its expansion last year, adding office space and engineers in a bid to drive growth in the Asian market. in a statement at the time, Twitter wrote: “Expanding our engineering center outside of the U.S. can accelerate our commitment to building a truly global, inclusive, accessible product through a more distributed workforce. accessible product commitment.”
Most of the other international subsidiaries are just smaller outposts of business operations, consisting primarily of engineering and ad sales divisions. almost all of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, but that business has struggled under Elon Musk’s leadership.
As finances deteriorated and ambitious subscription plans failed to meet expectations, Elon Musk began a steady stream of cost-cutting and layoffs. Benefits, perks and even cleaners have been cut. Twitter also continued layoffs last week in the trust, security and commercialization departments, along with employees who are routinely fired for angering Elon Musk in one way or another.
