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Twitter chief and co-founder Jack Dorsey has confirmed that four of his senior staff are leaving the company, as the future of the social media site continues to look uncertain.
In a letter posted to Twitter, Dorsey explained the changes taking place at the top of the company.
Was really hoping to talk to Twitter employees about this later this week, but want to set the record straight now: pic.twitter.com/PcpRyTzOlW
— Jack (@jack) January 25, 2016
At least one of the leavers – Katie Stanton – resigned, according to a blog post she placed on Medium. The departures add to recent turbulence that has left the social site unsteady.
Share prices have plummeted to their lowest in Twitter’s trading history, and around 8% of the site’s global staff were let go when Dorsey returned last year.
Attempts to stabilise and grow the site have also seen feature changes made with mixed results. The character limit on Direct Messages was lifted, but some questioned the replacing of the Favourite button with a Facebook-esque Like option, a move that Twitter says has worked.
Dear Twitter, I will never use the *like* button as a *like,* but always as a *favorite.*
— Joelle (@IfYouSeekJoelle) January 25, 2016
still using like button as favorite me: 1, twitter: 0
— Micro-ambitious (@pal36) January 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/vermallika/status/691255215618588672
Rumours that the 140-character limit could be removed have also gathered pace in recent weeks. Sina Weibo – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter – has already done just that.
Dorsey himself has said that Twitter needs to do more to be accessible to users, adding that the platform remains too complicated for many.
The rise of the likes of Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp hasn’t helped the Twitter cause, with all those services having surpassed the site in user numbers.
However, Dorsey said in this latest announcement that he and his team would work “day and night to make sure we’re building the right experiences”.
