| Hey everyone, it's Kurt. Twitter Inc. just launched its own version of Stories, social-media posts that disappear after 24 hours, and I couldn't help but shake my head. Not because Twitter is calling them "fleets," short for fleeting tweets, though it's a pretty cheesy name. And not because the product is a bad idea—Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp have shown that people like vanishing photos and videos. No, I shake my head because Fleets is the kind of product that could save Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey's job. It may have come out too late, though. Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter who has been running the company for about four years, is suddenly at risk of being pushed out. Activist investor Elliott Management has taken a stake in Twitter with the goal of replacing the CEO. If you don't know much about Elliott and its founder Paul Singer, I recommend this New Yorker profile from 2017. The tl;dr: Singer and Elliott are ruthless, and they usually get what they want. Right now, they want Dorsey gone. Elliott believes Twitter is mismanaged, and that Dorsey is to blame. It's a tough narrative to fight. Since Dorsey took over as CEO, the stock has lagged way behind Facebook Inc. and many other big internet companies. Twitter has launched products at a glacial pace, and it's still too easy for users to be harassed or emotionally abused on the service. Performance has improved lately, with two years of profitability and a more recent revival in user growth. But Twitter has taken too long to get there apparently, and now Dorsey is fighting for his job. So when Twitter announced Stories, err Fleets, I shook my head because it encapsulated the company's essence: a good idea slowly developed. Fleets are still only a test in Brazil. In contrast, Instagram launched Stories almost four years ago. More than 500 million people use the feature every day now. By one estimate, the product accounts for about 10% of overall ad spend on Facebook, which owns Instagram. Stories work because users don't like the pressure of sharing things that will never go away. Twitter is infamous for posts that come back to haunt people years later. Maybe Fleets will fix that. Fleets will not bring Instagram-sized numbers to Twitter—the company has a fraction of Instagram's customer base. But it may provide Twitter with the kind of user growth and revenue potential that Wall Street investors want. It's the kind of product that could change Twitter's trajectory. It might not change Dorsey's, though. —Kurt Wagner | 
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