Online news and social networking service Twitter has become a very popular platform for spreading news around the world and communicating with others. The 2016 presidential elections witnessed Republican candidate, businessman and politician Donald Trump using the service for his election campaign.
Since announcing his bid to run for the U.S. presidency, Trump's official Twitter account @RealDonaldTrump has been under considerable scrutiny because of the attacks he made on other politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and more.
However, Trump has also acquired more than 7 million followers on the social media platform.
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, thinks that Trump using Twitter during the presidential elections was "fascinating." During Recode's Code Commerce event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Dec. 6, Dorsey spoke about how he felt about Trump using Twitter and his role as a CEO in both Twitter and Square.
What Dorsey Thinks Of Trump Using Twitter
Dorsey was asked if he felt responsible for Trump's victory, to which he responded that America was responsible for Trump being the next president. Dorsey even says that a presidential candidate using Twitter was fascinating.
"Having the president-elect on our service, using it as a direct line of communication, allows everyone to see what's on his mind in the moment. I think that's interesting, I think it's fascinating, I haven't seen that before. So we're definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in real time and we can all have conversations about it," says Dorsey.
Dorsey Quitting As CEO Of Twitter Or Square?
Dorsey is running both Twitter and mobile payment company Square, and he says that he has no plans of leaving either of the two. The CEO wants to be measured by the results achieved by both companies.
"Our results ultimately come down to, do people want to use our products? ... My intention is to serve both companies in every way I know how and make sure that we are really focused on what's most important for each," says Dorsey.
However, it is worth noting that Twitter has been having difficult times and its stock has fallen by nearly 50 percent in the past few months. According to Twitter, the service had more than 313 million monthly active users as of June 30, 2016. However, the company is facing revenue problems as well as slow user growth.
Twitter has also been searching for a suitable buyer for the last few months but the company has not yet finalized a deal. During the Q3 2016 earnings call, the company also revealed plans to lay off about 350 employees.
Although Dorsey may not agree, managing two companies simultaneously can be a challenging task. Slow user growth rate and laying off employees could be signs that Twitter is struggling and it's time to take on a full-time CEO to replace Dorsey in the near term.
