Business Day

SpaceX buys ad on Twitter

- Akriti Sharma and Akash Sriram

STARLINK BOUGHT A TINY ... AD PACKAGE TO TEST TWITTER ADVERTISIN­G

SpaceX has bought an advertisin­g package on Twitter for its satellite internet service Starlink, said Elon Musk, who owns both the rocket company and the social media platform, in a tweet on Monday.

“SpaceX Starlink bought a tiny – not large – ad package to test effectiven­ess of Twitter advertisin­g in Australia & Spain. Did same for FB/Insta/Google,” Musk tweeted.

The move comes at a time when Twitter, which generated more than 90% of its secondquar­ter revenue from ad sales, is seeing an exodus of advertiser­s on fears that Musk will bring changes to the company’s content moderation rules.

Since he bought the company last month, several companies including General Motors, General Mills, Mondelez Internatio­nal and Volkswagen have paused advertisin­g on the platform.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX last week told advertiser­s that he aims to turn the social media platform to pursue truth and put an end to fake accounts.

He also raised the possibilit­y of Twitter going bankrupt days after he said the platform suffered a “massive” drop in revenue and blamed activist groups pressuring advertiser­s.

Tesla shares fell about 2% in premarket trading after Musk said, “I have too much work on my plate that is for sure”, when asked about his leadership at the electric carmaker and Twitter.

Shares of the world’s most valuable carmaker have been under pressure ever since Musk moved to buy Twitter in April on worries that he might be getting distracted at a time when Tesla is struggling to meet demand due to production constraint­s.

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