The announcement surprised more than one.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and boss of Twitter, has turned the page.
On Monday, he resigned his post as managing director and will step down from the board of directors next spring.
According to him, the time has come to let the blue bird stand on its own feet, and so it will be with Parag Agrawal at the helm.
Little known even in Silicon Valley, this engineer specializing in artificial intelligence, until then technological director of Twitter, faces two major challenges: that of moderation, with the ousting of Donald Trump, but also of growth. and monetization.
Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future.
Here's the note I sent to the company.
Thank you all for your trust and support đź’™ https://t.co/eNatG1dqH6 pic.twitter.com/liJmTbpYs1
- Parag Agrawal (@paraga) November 29, 2021
A shadow engineer of Indian origin
Parag Agrawal, 37, joined Twitter in 2011 after moving to Microsoft and Yahoo.
A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, he went on to earn a doctorate at Stanford, California, with a thesis on data management.
“I recognize that some of you know me well, others just a little and some not at all,” Parag Agrawal wrote in an open letter.
At Twitter, he has greatly developed artificial intelligence and machine learning (automated software learning).
Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Adobe and IBM are now all run by Indian-born bosses.
In favor of the ouster of Donald Trump
Banning Donald Trump from Twitter is arguably the most important decision Jack Dorsey has ever had to make.
It seems that Parag Agrawal is on the same wavelength: he had retweeted all the Twitter messages justifying the permanent ousting of the former US president after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2020. Unless surprised, he should not reverse this decision: last February, Twitter's chief financial officer, Ned Segal, assured that Donald Trump would not be reauthorized on the platform, even in the event of an application in 2024.
The puzzle of moderation
Parag Agrawal becomes captain in rough seas.
American elected officials on both sides have come up against the platforms: the Republicans cry censorship, and the Democrats believe that they allow hatred to proliferate and do not protect users enough.
In case of reform of the famous section 230 (which grants platforms immunity on content published by third parties), Twitter could face an impossible mission, with 500 million daily tweets.
The challenge of growth
With 211 million daily users (+ 12% over one year), growth has slowed down for several years. Twitter remains a critical communication tool for media, politicians and brands, but the network has never been able to truly win over the general public. On the functional side, the stories (fleets) have flopped and have been shelved, the “edit” function is still poor and the “spaces” audio lounges have not yet succeeded in overshadowing Clubhouse. In fifteen years of existence, Twitter only made profits in 2018 and 2019, before going back into the red last year. This explains its mediocre performance on Wall Street: in seven years, the share price is almost unchanged while those of Google and Facebook have multiplied by six.With a valuation of $ 36 billion and only 5,500 employees, Twitter remains a prey that whets appetites.
The question of decentralization
Perhaps this is where Parag Agrawal can make its mark, as Satya Nadella was able to do with the cloud at Microsoft.
As CTO, Agrawal focused on research around the blockchain.
He was also the one who oversaw the birth of Bluesky, Twitter's initiative to create a decentralized social network letting users control their data.
Last August, Parag Agrawal finalized the hiring of developer Jay Graber, a cryptocurrency specialist, at the head of Bluesky.
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