With recent events placing Elon Musk as the new owner of social media giant, Twitter, speculation has circled concerning Musk’s qualifications and purpose for running the company. The tech guru bought the social media giant in late October and has given little reason to doubt his qualification to succeed in this endeavor, especially from a business standpoint.  

Elon Musk has substantial successful business experience in various industries.

Musk is largely known for his involvement in the automotive industry founding the most successful electric car campaign in history at Tesla, Inc.. As the CEO and product architect of the company, Musk has made a name for himself. Despite not founding the company, a common misconception, he was deemed an angel investor, a term used to describe those who invest in start-up, after boosting the company by raising $7.5 million in funding. After being named CEO of the company in 2008, Musk has since invested an additional $70 million. Investment coordination will be extremely necessary when managing Twitter, and Musk has proved his proficiency in doing so.

The first Tesla model, the Tesla Roadster, cost over $100,000. Upon Musk’s acceptance to the new position, he announced the Model S, at $50,000. Musk also established a delivery service for the company’s products, which range from the cars themselves, to solar panels. The mission began to spread across the states, where today it is not hard to find a Tesla supercharging station at your local gas station or supermarket. 

Musk’s Tesla has managed to be a pioneer in marketing for green practices and continues to be highly transparent with their business practices, with all reports accessible from their website. Further, his company SpaceX uses low altitude satellites, as opposed to the more popular and pollutive high altitude satellites. Their rockets are also wholly reusable, whereas most rockets are designed to burn up upon reentry. Compared to other companies in the space industry, SpaceX is one of the cleanest. Musk will aid in making Twitter a more ethical company and correct its climate pledge, which is currently graded D by Ecosia.

Before Tesla, Musk was the co-founder of X.com, which merged with Confinity, to create PayPal, which Musk eventually sold to eBay. Around the same time, the widely successful SpaceX (as in exploration) was founded. Founding the company in 2002, Elon Musk made it his mission to “revolutionize space technology” (spacex.com). Little known is SpaceX’s involvement in the highly successful NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, in which Musk supplied his Falcon 9 rocket. Musk has also indulged various other businesses, and came out on top. From providing reliable internet to the Ukrainian military to developing wireless brain implants, Musk manages an impressive number of companies and projects with extremely diverse missions. His extraordinary experience in operating various businesses, and his clear background in innovation, provides a great runway for Musk to revolutionize Twitter.

There is no doubt that Elon Musk’s contributions to automobile manufacturing, technology, and sustainability have revolutionized these industries. Musk’s experience with sustainability and investment practices will surely come in handy with his new position at Twitter. With overt experience in various positions, Musk has become a sort of jack-of-all-trades in the business world. He has become a model for engineers, architects, climate activists, and entrepreneurs everywhere. This new pursuit will likely join the ranks among Elon Musk’s numerous successes. 

Elon Musk has a very distinct social media presence.  Buying a social media giant: it probably helps to be a consistent participant on the app itself. With his five companies, Twitter has proven to be an important aspect of outreach and consumer interaction. With substantial experience managing the perception of his various brands, Musk knows the ins and outs of Twitter as well as social media as a whole. Posts include celebrations for company milestones, advertisements for products, and even voting opportunities for production decisions. Tesla’s Twitter clearly outlines their earnings, carbon emissions and various other reports, promoting a sense of transparency across the brand. Musk will no doubt continue to use the platform to promote company culture and reimagine the brand in a positive light.

Musk has faced criticism regarding his decision to lay off almost half of employees upon his acquisition of Twitter. With his business experience, it can be easily inferred that there is solid reasoning behind this. CNN reported that the company needed layoffs in order to cut company expenses, especially since many advertisers have “stopped spending on Twitter” (Musk). He knows what he’s doing. Constant headlines with Musk’s drastic actions also promote attention for the company, and according to Carl Lewis “any press is good press”.  Recent news has also backed up this decision with Amazon and Facebook among the ranks of other companies laying off chunks of employees.

Musk knows to put his political beliefs aside.  For those concerned with Musk’s social persona, you’re not wrong for that. Twitter has had a serious misinformation issue for as long as it’s been around. In recent years, the issue has skyrocketed. Musk believes in Twitter’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe”. For many, free speech is synonymous with unregulated hate speech and misinformation. Despite this, it is also a necessity for American democracy. Many users believe that Musk will further misinformation across the platform, and worry for the future of social media reporting. For anyone who is worried: Musk is only the CEO, there is still a regulatory board–greatly resisting a hostile takeover at the hands of the tech guru.

After Twitter recently removed the restriction of Kanye West’s account on the platform, wrongfully pinned on Musk, some Americans worry that he will reinstate Donald Trump’s account on Twitter. From a business standpoint, this would be financially risky, with a possible loss of up to $1.24 billion from exiting users, as extrapolated by poll data from thestreet.com. As a successful businessman, Musk would not take this risk– especially as he is already scrambling to make up the $44 billion spent on the deal with Twitter. 

Despite Musk’s outlandish opinions, he is well versed in business relations. Comparing the differences of his personal and business Twitter accounts visibly proves that Musk is well aware of the economic and social compromise needed to take place for Twitter to be successful. With an extensive economic repertoire and outlying online presence, Musk’s consistent separation of product promotion and political persona must continue to ease the minds of those pinned against him.