Elon Musk Says Twitter's Potential Removal From iOS App Store Was 'Misunderstanding'

After Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, a few brands suspended their advertisement on Twitter. It was later reported that Elon Musk personally reached out to the CEOs of the companies that paused their ads on Twitter. At the moment, Twitter's debt is about $13 billion, while the advertising revenue was about $5 billion per year before Elon Musk acquired Twitter. Even with the Twitter Blue monthly subscription, the platform still needs ad revenue to turn around and make a profit, but losing half of its top advertisers doesn't help the situation.

Apple was the next big brand that reportedly suspended its ads on Twitter, according to Elon Musk. Twitter's new CEO also alleged that Apple "threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store" — and if that happens, Musk said that he would develop a smartphone to compete with the iPhone. Interestingly, Elon Musk thinks that iPhone is yesterday's technology and Neuralink is the future. In fact, Musk expects Neuralink to be approved by FDA for human trial over the next six months. Be that as it may, a conflict could be brewing between the world's richest man and the world's richest company — or maybe not. 

Barely two days after Elon Musk feuded with Apple publicly, he met with Tim Cook to settle the differences. "We resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so," Elon Musk tweeted last evening. This was a few hours after he shared a video of Apple's HQ to disclose the location of the meeting.

However, Elon Musk didn't reveal if Apple will continue advertising on Twitter. According to the Washington Post, Apple was the biggest ad spender on Twitter in Q1 2022. It spent an average of $4 million per week to run ads on Twitter between January to March this year — this added up to about 4% of Twitter's revenue. However, Reuters reports that Apple reduced its weekly ad budget on Twitter to $131,600 a few weeks after Elon Musk bought the social media company. We also haven't heard from Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, about the agenda of his meeting with Elon Musk.