Paid Advertising is the First Omission After Musk Took over Twitter

Following Elon Musk's takeover, GM temporarily stops running paid advertisements on Twitter.

Following Elon Musk's takeover of the social media site, General Motors has decided to halt its Twitter advertising. The Detroit manufacturer, a competitor of Elon Musk's Tesla electric car company, said it is delaying advertising as it assesses Twitter's new course. GM added that while it would still utilize the platform to communicate with customers, it would forego paying for advertisements. "We are interacting with Twitter to learn more about the plans for the service under their new ownership. We have temporarily halted our sponsored advertising, as is customary when a big change in a media platform occurs. We'll keep using Twitter for customer service contacts, the business said in an email.

The Detroit-based Corporation was one of the first to announce billions of dollars of investment under CEO Mary Barra in order to more effectively compete with Tesla in the battery electric vehicle market. A representative for Ford Motor, a competitor of Tesla, told that the car company does not advertise on Twitter and did not do so even before Elon Musk's take-private agreement. We will continue to assess the platform's trajectory under the new ownership, they added. The representative was unable to say when Ford or one of its partners may have last paid for advertisements, including promoted tweets, on the platform when shown a screenshot of a promotional tweet from Ford CEO Jim Farley.

Ford is still interacting with its clients on Twitter. In the wake of Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, other automakers, like Stellantis and Alphabet-owned Waymo, did not immediately answer to demands for comment on whether they intended to halt advertising on the social media network or stop using it altogether. Nikola, a manufacturer of electric trucks, stated that it has no plans to alter the platform in any way. Rivian opted not to respond. The takeover story's main focus has been Twitter's future development. According to Musk, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist," he will reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump, who was blocked due to tweets he made on January 6, 2021, during the Capitol uprising.

Musk announced on Friday that he is forming a "content moderation committee" and that he won't reinstate any accounts or decide on any significant content matters before it meets. In a statement to advertisers this week, Musk added that he could not allow Twitter to devolve into a "free-for-all hellscape." "Historically, we have been able to create significant media coverage of our company and our products, and we anticipate we will continue to do so," Tesla stated in the firm's annual report for 2021. We currently generate the majority of our sales leads through word of mouth and similar media coverage, which has allowed us to increase sales without spending a lot on traditional advertising.

In financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it stated that marketing, promotional, and advertising costs were "immaterial" for the years ending December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019. There has been a lot of speculation regarding my motivation for purchasing Twitter and my views on advertising, Musk said. Most of it has been inaccurate. He continued by saying that Twitter cannot be "a free-for-all hellscape" but instead has the ability to be a "shared digital town square." For GM to compete with Tesla and possibly even outsell it in the sale of electric vehicles, Musk's promises might not be sufficient.