Europe 1 with AFP 23:41 p.m., May 11, 2023

The American billionaire, Elon Musk, said on Thursday that he had hired a general manager to replace him at the head of the platform, while specifying that he would keep control of the social network. He will remain Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer.

Elon Musk said on Twitter Thursday that he had hired a chief executive to replace him at the head of the platform, while specifying that he would keep control of the social network that he has upset over the past six months. "Delighted to announce that I have hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. It will start in about 6 weeks!" tweeted the billionaire, who bought the company in late October and renamed it "X Corp" last month.

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"Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors"

"I will become executive chairman of the board and chief technology officer, overseeing products, software and operations," he added. The boss of Tesla and SpaceX had done a survey in December to ask Twitter users whether or not he should leave the direction of the platform. Some 17 million of them had spoken, 57% of whom were in favour of his departure. After procrastinating, Elon Musk had tweeted that he planned to give way as soon as he had "found someone crazy enough" to succeed him.

Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!

My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023

The entrepreneur has transformed the Californian group, with several waves of layoffs that have reduced its teams to the minimum portion. It has let back controversial figures once banned from the network for breaking its rules and launching a paid subscription for services that were previously free. These chaotic changes and its various provocations have scared away many advertisers, on whom the platform's business model depends.

The San Francisco-based company, which generates most of its revenue from advertising, is set to earn less than $3 billion in 2023, up from $4.14 billion in 2022, or 28 percent less, according to Insider Intelligence. "The biggest problem is that advertisers don't trust Musk," said analyst Jasmine Enberg, quoted in a statement from the research firm in April.