Elon Musk thinks there will be a billion people using Twitter by 2024

Elon Musk is clearly feeling very optimistic about the numbers of people who will be using Twitter in years to come – despite the fact his start to life at the social media site has been far from ideal.

Musk bought the social network for $44bn this year and his first move was to unveil controversial plans to allow anyone on Twitter to become “verified” by paying $8 per month. It was then postponed just days into its launch due to a plague of $8 pranksters impersonating celebrities.

The Tesla CEO also reportedly told Twitter staff to work "long hours at high intensity" or leave the company, with a load of celebrities leaving the site over recent weeks.

On Sunday, Musk shared slides from a talk he gave to Twitter employees - and it looks like he still has ambitious plans.

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They claimed that “new user signups are at an all-time high” and also said that “hate speech impressions are lower”.

He later replied to Jordan Peterson on the platform, saying: "I think I see a path to Twitter exceeding a billion monthly users in 12 to 18 months."

It was all part of a plan to introduce ‘Twitter 2.0’ which he claims will include 'encrypted DMs', ‘advertising as entertainment’ and 'payments'.

Watch this space…

Musk's purchase of Twitter has continued to cause controversy this week after he invited former president Donald Trump back to the website and declared that there will be an amnesty for previously banned accounts.

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