Parag Agrawal: Who is the new Twitter boss?

Punk has left the tech world on the big stage. Parag Agrawal takes control of Twitter and faces a huge task.

15 years later, Jack Dorsey hands the Twitter wand. The fact of increased pressure from shareholders should not be a reason for the CEO to be fired. On Monday, he announced that he had worked to secure the company’s separation from its founders. Parag Agrawal should take charge now. Who is the new follower of the punk and masseur?

The world of technology has lost one colorful personality. Jack Dorsey was never a manager in a suit. Beard, nose piercing, beanie and leather jacket or dyed shirt. Dorsey’s style has changed over the years, but he has remained a rebel. On the other hand, Parag Agrawal is quite different.

Born in Mumbai, the 37-year-old studied at the Bombay Institute of Technology and later earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Before moving to Twitter in 2011, he worked at Microsoft, Yahoo, and AT&T, among others. In October 2011, he started his career on Twitter as a software engineer until he was appointed Chief Technology Officer in 2017. In his new position, he soon took up work on the decentralized Bluesky, which could make Twitter itself a client for many.

“For example, central implementation of global anti-abuse and misinformation guidelines is unlikely to expand in the long term,” Jack Dorsey said on Twitter in 2019. This would provide a way out of the oversight platforms. In addition, not every platform will be responsible for itself thereafter, as malicious content is shared or deleted.

Biggest Mission: Make Twitter Reach 315 Million Paying Customers

This work must now be done without Agrawal. His biggest task will be to achieve the company’s ambitious goals. After all, the SMS service wants to have more than 315 million paying users by 2023. The subscription model, which should cost between three to ten dollars a month, was introduced in Canada and Australia back in June of this year. The service will be introduced gradually. The company keeps three percent of its revenue up to $50,000, and 20 percent above that.

“I think the strategy is brave and correct,” Agrawal said, referring to the goals. After all, under pressure from shareholders, annual income should at least double over the next few years.

It remains to be seen if Agrawal can meet shareholder expectations. One thing is for sure: the exchange immediately responded to Dorsey’s resignation. Twitter’s share value rose by ten percentage points, only to fall sharply shortly after the successor’s announcement.