Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down, to be replaced by current CTO Parag Argrawal.

What’s the big deal? Jack Dorsey is CEO of two publicly traded companies — and their stock performance couldn’t be more different:

• Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) — is up 5% since its IPO in 2013.
• Square (NASDAQ:SQ) — is up 1,556% since its IPO in 2015.

Dorsey was long criticized for his dual role as CEO — spending too much time on Square and other projects.

Early last year, activist investor — Elliott Management — took a stake in Twitter and launched a battle to oust Dorsey. But all was good for the next 18 months:

• Deal struck: Dorsey stayed on as CEO and Elliott Management received board seats.
• COVID: Growth picked up during COVID — sending TWTR stock to record highs.

Throwing products at users… With nothing sticking. For years, Twitter struggled with growth — going through countless failed products: Stories (IG stories?), Spaces (audio chat rooms like Clubhouse), Fleets (disappearing messages like Snapchat).

In 2021, Twitter acquired Breaker (social podcasting app) and Revue (newsletter platform), and launched Blue, a subscription service for $2.99 per month.

Looking forward: Twitter set big targets for itself to increase daily average users by over 50% and double sales by 2023. With growth slowing post-COVID and Dorsey departing — reaching those goals are even more uncertain.

The problem goes beyond Twitter — as other social media apps are also seeing slower user growth and reeling from brands pulling advertising back due to a lack of inventory.

• Pinterest (NASDAQ:PINS) is down over 50% and Snap (NASDAQ:SNAP) is down over 40% from their 2021 peaks.
• Despite these big drops — they’re still up triple digits since the start of 2020.