Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has affected tons of people and businesses. The automobile industry is not exempted from the impact of this chaotic transfer of ownership. One of the clearest signs of this was General Motors (GM) announcing that it would not be advertising on Twitter.
The reason was the site’s ownership going to a competitor – Musk, who owns Tesla. With the GM CEO, sub-brands, and top executives becoming inactive on Twitter, the pullback from the social networking site appears to be more intense than was first announced.
Also Read: General Motors Temporarily Halts Paid Advertising on Twitter
Bloomberg reported that GM CEO, Mary Barra, and sub-brands under the automotive giant (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC, for instance) have not tweeted since October 27, the day Musk took over Twitter. GM was quoted saying that “with a competitor [Tesla] owning the platform, it’s important for us to ensure our advertising strategies and data can be safely managed.”
The carmaker also called Twitter as “just one of many channels available” to share information, stating that it would “choose the channels and platforms that can be most effective at any point in time.” The retreat from Twitter is likely allowing automobile manufacturers some time to evaluate content standards and the use of publicity and client data under Musk.
GM, who is planning on going the all-electric vehicle route by 2035, is a direct competitor of Tesla in the electric vehicle market. Barra has often spoken about the unrivalled dual benefit of technology and scale that GM has. While legacy carmakers have scale, they are yet to completely dive into the tech. It is vice-versa for relative newcomers like Tesla, reported CNBC. Some projections expect that GM will overtake Tesla by mid-decade. The brewing contest explains GM’s concerns about advertising on a platform owned by its closest competitor.
Alongside GM, other automobile manufacturers like Stellantis, Honda America, and Volkswagen group have recalibrated their stance on advertising and paid promotion on Twitter. Meanwhile, Nissan and Hyundai said that they were closely tracking the developments surrounding Twitter, factoring it into their outreach policies.
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