Mark Read, CEO of the world’s largest advertising firm, WPP, has welcomed Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter, and said he doesn’t believe the purchase will effect ad revenue on the social media platform.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, Read – who has held WPP’s chief executive position since 2018 – said limiting advertising on Twitter wouldn’t hurt ad agencies so much as the platform itself.
“I don’t think he’s going to pay $44 billion for a company and then effectively eliminate its revenue line,” he said.
Read (featured image) was also upbeat about Twitter’s future, and believed Musk’s involvement would only improve the platform for ad agencies’ clients, and general users.
“There’s no doubt that Twitter can be a stronger product,” he told hosts, Francine Lacqua and Tom Mackenzie.
“Many of [Musk’s] ideas around fake bots, and improving the algorithms and improving the customer experience would be great for the platform, great for users and great for our clients.”
Musk’s controversial purchase has provoked constant debate regarding his intentions for the platform, and how he will influence its revenue streams.
However, in an April 14 TED Talk, the Space X and Tesla CEO denied any intentions of making a profit from Twitter.
“This is not a way to sort of make money. I don’t care about the economics at all,” he told the audience.
Musk has been open about his intentions to promote free speech on Twitter and limit the site’s content moderation.
However, some advertisers have voiced their concern that limiting Twitter’s content moderation could steer brands away from the platform. After all, who wants their brand’s fancy, expensive, brand new campaign appearing next to anti-vax threads?
Read didn’t seem quite as alarmed.
“No doubt some people are concerned about the content on the platform,” the ad giant said. “That type of approach may work, it may not, we’ll have to see.”
