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Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of Twitter and handed the baton to the comparatively unknown govt Parag Agrawal.
Agrawal, who has been with the corporate for 10 years – most not too long ago as chief know-how officer – has emerged from behind the scenes to take over considered one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile and politically unstable jobs. However who’s he, and what can we count on for Twitter underneath his management?
A 37-year-old immigrant from India, Agrawal comes from outdoors the ranks of celeb CEOs, which embrace the person he’s changing in addition to Fb’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk. However his lack of identify recognition, coupled with a stable technical background, seems to be what a few of Twitter’s largest backers have been searching for within the firm’s subsequent chapter.
Agrawal is a “‘protected’ choose who needs to be regarded upon as favorably by buyers”, wrote the CFRA Analysis analyst Angelo Zino, who famous that the Twitter shareholder Elliott Administration had pressured Dorsey to step down.
Which means we will count on extra of the identical underneath him when it comes to coverage and firm path, consultants say – together with plans to proceed Twitter’s current technique to double its annual income by 2023 and give attention to its long-term ambition to rebuild how social media corporations function.
“We not too long ago up to date our technique to hit formidable objectives, and I imagine that technique to be daring and proper,” Agrawal stated in an e mail to workers. “However our important problem is how we work to execute in opposition to it and ship outcomes.”
The corporate at present faces a bunch of challenges, together with gradual progress in its consumer base as rivals like TikTok and Instagram lure away youthful demographics, in addition to persevering with struggles with misinformation and hate speech.
Agrawal is anticipated largely to choose up the place Dorsey left off, persevering with to combat for customers being lured away by rivals like TikTok and Instagram, stated Jill Wilson, the chief advertising officer for Esquire Digital.
“Agrawal has his work minimize out for him when it comes to preserving Twitter related and getting the on a regular basis consumer on board, and monetizing the platform typically,” she stated.
Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006, steered the corporate by means of a high-profile hack and the controversial banning of Donald Trump, who examined the boundaries of the platform’s enforcement in opposition to hate speech and misinformation.
These issues have continued past the Trump presidency, and Agrawal is getting into a task within the eye of the storm over moderation insurance policies on hate speech and misinformation, for which Dorsey has confronted criticism in recent times.
“The brand new CEO might want to work out tips on how to cease his platform being a machine that’s routinely and perpetually hijacked to distort the information agenda, produce pretend reputation and affect, and supply a warped lens on the world,” stated Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Middle for Countering Digital Hate.
Dorsey had concurrently been serving as CEO of the social media platform and as CEO of his funds processing firm Sq. however will now focus totally on Sq. in addition to different pursuits reminiscent of philanthropy, Reuters reviews.
In an e mail to workers on Monday, Dorsey stated he selected to step down as a result of power of Agrawal’s management, the naming of the Salesforce chief working officer, Bret Taylor, as the brand new chairman of the board and his confidence within the “ambition and potential” of Twitter’s workers.
“I’m actually unhappy … but actually pleased,” he wrote. “There aren’t many corporations that get to this degree,” including that his transfer to step down “was my determination and I personal it”.
Over the previous 12 months, Twitter has fought to finish years-long criticism that it has been gradual to introduce new options for its 211 million day by day customers and was dropping floor to social media rivals.
Below Dorsey’s management, Twitter acquired the e-mail e-newsletter service Revue and launched Areas, a function that lets customers host or hearken to reside audio conversations.
Nonetheless, shares within the firm have slumped in current months, including strain on Dorsey to finish his uncommon association of being CEO of two corporations.
Agrawal has already had a quick introduction to life as CEO of a central platform for political speech.
Following the announcement on Monday, conservatives shortly unearthed a tweet he despatched in 2010 that learn: “If they don’t seem to be gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why ought to I distinguish between white individuals and racists.”
As some Twitter customers identified, the 11-year-old tweet was quoting a section on The Day by day Present, which was referencing the firing of Juan Williams, who made a remark about being nervous about Muslims on an airplane.
Companies contributed to this report
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