Elon Musk has named a product developer who has created successful youth-oriented social media apps to a senior position at X.
Nikita Bier has been chosen as X’s head of product three years after publicly suggesting on the platform, then known as Twitter, that he should be hired.
“I have officially climbed my way to the top,” he announced on X when revealing his new role.
X has had a tumultuous journey since being acquired by the world’s wealthiest man for $44 billion (£38.1 billion) in October 2022.
The platform has faced challenges with advertisers, experienced high-profile users leaving, and grappled with the emergence of new competitors such as Bluesky and Threads.
However, experts believe that Mr. Bier’s appointment could improve its prospects with a crucial demographic.
Drew Benvie, CEO of social media consulting firm Battenhall, stated that Mr. Bier’s expertise in creating features that engage younger users, such as anonymous polling, gives him hope that his arrival will bring some “X-factor” to the platform.
“Understanding what consumers want, particularly Gen Z users, is exactly what X needs right now to turn things around. The once-greatest social network is not completely lost,” he informed the BBC.
Social media expert Matt Navarra believes that providing “fresh energy for younger users” in the form of more interactive, immersive, and positive content will be crucial.
However, he believes that while “rebooting product thinking” could benefit the platform, converting it into tangible growth and retention of younger users will require more immediate changes, such as more content formats, brand safety controls, and monetization options for creators.
Mr. Bier, a former student at the University of California, Berkeley, rose to prominence after launching a series of anonymous apps targeted at teenagers.
These included tbh (short for “to be honest”), a platform that allowed high school students in the United States to participate in anonymous and friendly polls. It was acquired by Meta in 2017.
In 2023, his compliments-focused app Gas was acquired by Discord after climbing the US app download charts.
When he joined them as an advisor last year, venture capital firm Lightspeed referred to Mr. Bier as the “king of virality.”
However, the methods by which Mr. Bier’s now-defunct app tbh allegedly targeted younger users were somewhat controversial.
Buzzfeed reported in 2018 that it had obtained a memo in which tbh’s founders informed Facebook colleagues, after the acquisition, of a “psychological trick” that could be used to attract teenage sign-ups.
According to the report, this included scouring Instagram for high school students’ accounts.
How Musk transformed social media giant X in 2024
In his post on X, Mr. Bier referred to his new employer as “the most important social network in the world.”
“While I already spend every waking hour on this app, I will now be spending that time assisting others in unlocking the same value,” he stated.
This will include “leveraging the power” of X’s generative AI chatbot Grok to create “hyper-relevant timelines,” he added.
X’s usage and popularity have fluctuated under Musk’s leadership of the platform.
In March, he stated that the platform had over 600 million monthly active users.
However, according to a December Pew Research Center study, only 17% of Americans said they use X, down from 23% in 2022 and 33% a decade ago.
The appointment of Mr. Bier at X comes at a time when technology companies are competing for top talent, particularly in-demand engineers, to lead their AI development.
Mark Zuckerberg announced a new “superintelligence” team at Meta on Monday, following reports that it had offered more than $100 million in compensation to OpenAI employees.
The team includes Nat Friedman, former CEO of software development platform GitHub, Alexandr Wang of data annotation company Scale AI, and co-creators of OpenAI’s models.
According to an internal memo seen by Wired, one OpenAI executive compared the company’s approach to its employees with large compensation packages to a burglary.
Mark Chen, the company’s chief research officer, reportedly stated that he and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were working on “innovative ways to recognize and reward top talent.”
The BBC has requested comment from OpenAI.
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