Wanted: a CEO who spends a lot of time using Twitter and knows how to create great products.
The San Francisco-based company is looking for a new leader after Dick Costolo said on Thursday that he?s stepping down as chief executive officer. Yahoo! Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, Twitter CFO Anthony Noto and former Google Inc. executive Vic Gundotra were mentioned by analysts as potential candidates.
“We?re looking for someone who really uses and loves the product,” said Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter Inc. and is stepping in as interim CEO.1 “Despite all that we have accomplished, the company still has huge unmet potential.”
The next chief will inherit a company that?s struggling to speed up user growth and build out an advertising business that can deliver more revenue?in that order. Twitter has 302 million users, compared with 1.44 billion for Facebook Inc., and has cut its revenue guidance for this year after making changes to its advertising business. The new CEO will have to be someone who is focused on getting the product right, rather than an executive with experience in finance or advertising.
“Has to be a product expert,” said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. “I think if you put anybody aside from a product expert at the helm?you?re going to have kind of the same issues.”
Twitter could take a page from suggestions made by investor Chris Sacca earlier this month, said Victor Anthony, an analyst at Axiom Capital Management. That could include linking more content to live events, helping to draw visitors. The new will CEO have to improve the user interface to become more intuitive?and also should look at making the platform more social and easier for people to interact, according to Sacca.
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