Elon Musk acquires Twitter, Discuss

[Dangerous Donna]

I like his tweet about this acquisition.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1585619322239561728

View: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585619322239561728?s=20&t=SPjKm8o-5xjFDxE325s8mQ

Yes read this. Elon will need a strong spine to run With his Twitter ideas

 

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[Andy Black]

I think this is interesting.

Accounts pay $8/mth to be verified and have a blue checkmark. Those accounts will be prioritised in search results. I don't know how much search volume there is on Twitter, but $8/mth could be a low price to pay to get a boost.

He wants to keep people on Twitter instead of going to YouTube and TikTok. That means allowing longer videos on Twitter, and an more of a focus on video. I think I saw some result of a poll asking Twitter users whether he should bring back Vines and 70% saying Yes.

TikTok - Make Your Day

 

[Xeon]

Would be good if he runs for US presidency in 2024.

 

[Fox]

TikTok - Make Your Day

Ive been trying to get the Blue checkmark for $8 but looks like you have to be based in the USA, Canada, Auz, or NZ for now. I can't wait to see how this goes, I think he will crush it with Twitter.

 

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[Andy Black]

Ive been trying to get the Blue checkmark for $8 but looks like you have to be based in the USA, Canada, Auz, or NZ for now. I can't wait to see how this goes, I think he will crush it with Twitter.

I'd be surprised if he doesn't push short video too.

 

[Conor Foley]

I'd be surprised if he doesn't push short video too.

What do we think his real monetisation strategy will be? Binance have agreed to invest $500m so we’re likely to see some form a crypto / NFT exchange.

What does everyone else think?

 

[Andreas Thiel]

What do we think his real monetisation strategy will be? Binance have agreed to invest $500m so we’re likely to see some form a crypto / NFT exchange.

What does everyone else think?

I think his current plans still depend on ad revenue being the primary source of income and I don't think he'll pivot away from that. He'll just try to get market share from other platforms.

 

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[Andy Black]

Dammit. I was literally stepping off the platform for a bit but I think it's worth staying to see what happens.

Twitter had already bought Revue so accounts could grow newsletters seamlessly from within Twitter.

I think they'll have to prioritise short video like YouTube has, and introduce longer video like TikTok has.

I think of TikTok as being a video version of Twitter anyway.

As a creator I don't rate Twitter. To date it's about how big and engaged your following is, and how excruciatingly recent your content is. I posted a video on Twitter with 1,700+ followers and it got 24 views. On TikTok with 40 followers it got 9,000+ views. As a creator Twitter is an afterthought for me. How will they encourage creators to create more content? They need to be incentivised with reach. But the userbase is so much lower than TikTok and YouTube.

It will be interesting to watch.

 

[Damien C]

Ah twitter, another glorified database with a couple of APIs. All these platforms start out with such promise and then the narcisstists get on there and wreck it . $8 isn't enough. A minimum IQ and means test may be in order!

 

[Private Witt]

Would be good if he runs for US presidency in 2024.

Not eligible

 

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[Roli]

I think this is interesting.

Accounts pay $8/mth to be verified and have a blue checkmark. Those accounts will be prioritised in search results. I don't know how much search volume there is on Twitter, but $8/mth could be a low price to pay to get a boost.

He wants to keep people on Twitter instead of going to YouTube and TikTok. That means allowing longer videos on Twitter, and an more of a focus on video. I think I saw some result of a poll asking Twitter users whether he should bring back Vines and 70% saying Yes.

TikTok - Make Your Day

Verified accounts used to go on the dark web for upwards of $15,000. Now you can buy one from Elon for $8 per month.

If you think the bots and scammers are bad on Twitter now, wait till this kicks in. But yeah, I'm sure it'll make loads of money. Which he'll need to seeing as he has lost 72% of ad revenue in just over a week.

 

[Conor Foley]

I think his current plans still depend on ad revenue being the primary source of income and I don't think he'll pivot away from that. He'll just try to get market share from other platforms.

Verified accounts used to go on the dark web for upwards of $15,000. Now you can buy one from Elon for $8 per month.

If you think the bots and scammers are bad on Twitter now, wait till this kicks in. But yeah, I'm sure it'll make loads of money. Which he'll need to seeing as he has lost 72% of ad revenue in just over a week.

@Roli, really interesting point. What your thoughts on the Binance investment - where is Elon planning to take the Twitter business model?

 

[Roli]

@Roli, really interesting point. What your thoughts on the Binance investment - where is Elon planning to take the Twitter business model?

A lot of people think Doge will be the coin because of his past tweets. However I'm not so sure, if anything he's more likely to make a Twitter coin. Maybe that's even the interest with Binance, their own coin has done tremendously well, mainly because of its utility on the Binance platform.

The problem is Elon has sacked a fair few people and if rumours are true, some of those people were the ones who would make the whole crypto-web3 connection happen. Obviously you can hire anyone to do anything, but things will happen quicker if you use people used to the code, protocols, APIs, etc.

It's shaky days for him, if he survives the next 6-12 months there's a chance all the above and more could happen, however I wouldn't be surprised if he sold or stepped down as CEO for the simple fact that Twitter had a reliable multi-billion dollar per year revenue, via ads. If that bottom line keeps taking a hit, I don't see any other option but to step down/sell.

 

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[Conor Foley]

A lot of people think Doge will be the coin because of his past tweets. However I'm not so sure, if anything he's more likely to make a Twitter coin. Maybe that's even the interest with Binance, their own coin has done tremendously well, mainly because of its utility on the Binance platform.

The problem is Elon has sacked a fair few people and if rumours are true, some of those people were the ones who would make the whole crypto-web3 connection happen. Obviously you can hire anyone to do anything, but things will happen quicker if you use people used to the code, protocols, APIs, etc.

It's shaky days for him, if he survives the next 6-12 months there's a chance all the above and more could happen, however I wouldn't be surprised if he sold or stepped down as CEO for the simple fact that Twitter had a reliable multi-billion dollar per year revenue, via ads. If that bottom line keeps taking a hit, I don't see any other option but to step down/sell.

Well said, couldn’t agree more! Binance Smart Chain is a strong platform and it would be super easy for Elon to monitise a new Twitter coin using a combination of the new paid subscription model and ad revenue.

On the talent piece, your absolutely right. I even read an article saying that Elon is now considering re-hiring some Twitter employees realising that they know their the ones who know the protocols, code based and API’s best and would be pivotal to innovating the platform.

I can definitely see him stepping down from running the platform but I would like to see him make some changes to the platform first and see if he can improve its utility. Regardless of what he decides to do next, he has a long road ahead of him.

 

[Andreas Thiel]

Well said, couldn’t agree more! Binance Smart Chain is a strong platform and it would be super easy for Elon to monitise a new Twitter coin using a combination of the new paid subscription model and ad revenue.

On the talent piece, your absolutely right. I even read an article saying that Elon is now considering re-hiring some Twitter employees realising that they know their the ones who know the protocols, code based and API’s best and would be pivotal to innovating the platform.

I can definitely see him stepping down from running the platform but I would like to see him make some changes to the platform first and see if he can improve its utility. Regardless of what he decides to do next, he has a long road ahead of him.

I don't really get why people keep speculating about Elon Musk and huge crypto moves.

The whole Twitter thing is mostly a distraction for him, but because of personal attacks / compaigns on the platform and one sided censorship across the whole media landscape, he must have come to the conclusion that he needs to do something to address the issue.

With Twitter, he has now expanded his circle of influence again and I expect him to be extremely pragmatic about the whole monetization topic.

As much as I like Elon Musk, I too think his crypto tweets were mostly pump and dump activities.
He'll rush back to working on robots, cars, trucks and rockets as soon as he has stopped the bleeding at Twitter as well as reasonably possible and even if he has to redirect money to the company for decades to some degree, that is probably worth it from his point of view.

 

[Roli]

I don't really get why people keep speculating about Elon Musk and huge crypto moves.

The whole Twitter thing is mostly a distraction for him, but because of personal attacks / compaigns on the platform and one sided censorship across the whole media landscape, he must have come to the conclusion that he needs to do something to address the issue.

With Twitter, he has now expanded his circle of influence again and I expect him to be extremely pragmatic about the whole monetization topic.

As much as I like Elon Musk, I too think his crypto tweets were mostly pump and dump activities.
He'll rush back to working on robots, cars, trucks and rockets as soon as he has stopped the bleeding at Twitter as well as reasonably possible and even if he has to redirect money to the company for decades to some degree, that is probably worth it from his point of view.

I think you're placing too much stock in Elon's shtick about free speech and impartiality. He doesn't care one little bit, he cares about data capture.

He has a company called something like neuralink, whereby he wants to connect all of our brains to some kind of hive mind. Elon is great at PR which is why so many love him. I find him completely disingenous however in the modern world you can say something and then the next day contradict yourself and hardly anyone seems to notice or care.

or instance, Elon said he'd like to keep Twitter impartial and then used it to tell everyone to vote Republican. Also he said that parody should be allowed and then banned accounts parodying him. He said free speech should be allowed but then banned (and later unbanned) David Icke's account for calling him an evil billionaire. He's full of crap.

Trust me, he won't just pump billions into Twitter for decades just for the fun of it, if it carries on losing money he will get out. Just because he can afford to lose tens of billions, doesn't mean he's prepared to.

 

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[MitchC]

He’s made it very clear he’s trying to recreate wechat for the west and a big part of that is payments and banking, he also bought x.com back a while ago, so it makes a lot more sense and is a lot more related than what you are saying it does

Does that mean doge coin will suddenly become valuable?

Probably not but it will pump off the news as he starts making clearer moves towards these goals

 

[Andreas Thiel]

He’s made it very clear he’s trying to recreate wechat for the west and a big part of that is payments and banking, he also bought x.com back a while ago, so it makes a lot more sense and is a lot more related than what you are saying it does

Does that mean doge coin will suddenly become valuable?

Probably not but it will pump off the news as he starts making clearer moves towards these goals

Right, I forgot about his everything app plans. True ...

I think you're placing too much stock in Elon's shtick about free speech and impartiality. He doesn't care one little bit, he cares about data capture.

He has a company called something like neuralink, whereby he wants to connect all of our brains to some kind of hive mind. Elon is great at PR which is why so many love him. I find him completely disingenous however in the modern world you can say something and then the next day contradict yourself and hardly anyone seems to notice or care.

or instance, Elon said he'd like to keep Twitter impartial and then used it to tell everyone to vote Republican. Also he said that parody should be allowed and then banned accounts parodying him. He said free speech should be allowed but then banned (and later unbanned) David Icke's account for calling him an evil billionaire. He's full of crap.

Trust me, he won't just pump billions into Twitter for decades just for the fun of it, if it carries on losing money he will get out. Just because he can afford to lose tens of billions, doesn't mean he's prepared to.

I didn't say it is about free speech for him. He is anti establishment and certain feuds have gotten dirty.
Data capture? I don't think so. Painting Elon as the James Bond villain is exactly what the establishment tries to accomplish. Throwing him into the billionaire stew, especially with Jeff Bezos.

His case for Neuralink (as laid out in the WaitButWhy articles) is solid. Words suck when it comes to communicating ideas clearly. And he is right about the impact that exponential technologies will have, so something is needed to gain control ... or simply to keep up with what will be happening soon.
What kind of ingongruence do you see? I see him play dirty when it is appropriate, but I don't see anything that says his motivation - improving the future where he can - is only an act.

I have seen those "Parody" accounts. They appear in your timeline and ... something is funny about Elon Musk saying "Ghislaine Maxwell is a great person"? The only thing that says "parody" is the sentence "this is a parody account" in their profile description which nobody ever gets to see. I think there is nothing wrong with stopping that kind of impersonation. It is obviously a campaign to damage his reputation.

 

[Roli]

Right, I forgot about his everything app plans. True ...


I didn't say it is about free speech for him. He is anti establishment and certain feuds have gotten dirty.
Data capture? I don't think so. Painting Elon as the James Bond villain is exactly what the establishment tries to accomplish. Throwing him into the billionaire stew, especially with Jeff Bezos.

His case for Neuralink (as laid out in the WaitButWhy articles) is solid. Words suck when it comes to communicating ideas clearly. And he is right about the impact that exponential technologies will have, so something is needed to gain control ... or simply to keep up with what will be happening soon.
What kind of ingongruence do you see? I see him play dirty when it is appropriate, but I don't see anything that says his motivation - improving the future where he can - is only an act.

I have seen those "Parody" accounts. They appear in your timeline and ... something is funny about Elon Musk saying "Ghislaine Maxwell is a great person"? The only thing that says "parody" is the sentence "this is a parody account" in their profile description which nobody ever gets to see. I think there is nothing wrong with stopping that kind of impersonation. It is obviously a campaign to damage his reputation.

Meh, Elon himself said as long as the bio says parody he's fine, but hey-ho I don't really care one way or the other, I used to like Elon but his support of an illegal coup in Chile really rubbed me the wrong way.

I do find it funny though that when Elon says, I want to create a hive mind of humans and machines, everyone's like, oh, really? That's cool. If Bill Gates said it I think the internet would literally explode

Anyways, I'm enjoying watching the drama unfold, sacking people then unsacking them, random ideas, public beefs, all good popcorn fodder!

 

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[msufan]

Can you imagine working at Twitter these past few weeks? Morale has to be horrific as everyone around you is fired, some re-hired, and you are forced to pivot repeatedly because Musk has no real plan. I had hopes that Elon could improve Twitter; I now think the best chance of that happening involves him finding someone else with a more consistent demeanor to run it under Elon's watchful ownership.

 

[Conor Foley]

Can you imagine working at Twitter these past few weeks? Morale has to be horrific as everyone around you is fired, some re-hired, and you are forced to pivot repeatedly because Musk has no real plan. I had hopes that Elon could improve Twitter; I now think the best chance of that happening involves him finding someone else with a more consistent demeanor to run it under Elon's watchful ownership.

Completely agree here, I think he’s burned that bridge and lost a lot of trust with the wider public in general and all the talent that built Twitter.

Look how Elon fired this engineer + 5 years of service to Twitter.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

So I tried to subscribe to "Twitter Blue" so I can run some post experiments and compare them to non-blue posts, and it isn't even an option for me.

I got a message saying it wasn't available to people in my country (UTAH). I looked and my profile was up to date.

Now, the option has completely disappeared.

As before, my voice and commentary on Twitter is suppressed. In other words, nothing has changed -- which is why I've been off it for years, just like Facebook.

 

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[Fox]

So I tried to subscribe to "Twitter Blue" so I can run some post experiments and compare them to non-blue posts, and it isn't even an option for me.

I got a message saying it wasn't available to people in my country (UTAH). I looked and my profile was up to date.

Now, the option has completely disappeared.

As before, my voice and commentary on Twitter is suppressed. In other words, nothing has changed -- which is why I've been off it for years, just like Facebook.

I believe it has been paused for now until he fixes some issues.

Twitter pauses paid verifications after users abuse service to impersonate brands and people

Earlier this week, Twitter launched a $7.99 subscription service called Twitter Blue. On Friday the option to sign up disappeared from Twitter's iOS app.

www.cnbc.com

 

[msufan]

Completely agree here, I think he’s burned that bridge and lost a lot of trust with the wider public in general and all the talent that built Twitter.

Look how Elon fired this engineer + 5 years of service to Twitter.

This is incredible. Talk about burning $44B to the ground.

 

[Private Witt]

Completely agree here, I think he’s burned that bridge and lost a lot of trust with the wider public in general and all the talent that built Twitter.

Look how Elon fired this engineer + 5 years of service to Twitter.

That guy is a comedian not an engineer lol.

 

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[msufan]

That guy is a comedian not an engineer lol.

I need the verified checkmark to confirm

 

[Conor Foley]

That guy is a comedian not an engineer lol.

Damn I got catfished again lol

 

[doster.zach]

I know its to get attention and be provocative, but its ironic that journalists don't really know what freedom of speech entails.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1592290937522507777

View: https://twitter.com/KurtWagner8/status/1592290937522507777

 

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[NeoDialectic]

I know its to get attention and be provocative, but its ironic that journalists don't really know what freedom of speech entails.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1592290937522507777

View: https://twitter.com/KurtWagner8/status/1592290937522507777

Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences!

I don't want to waste time teasing out the philosophy, so I'll keep my opinion on this as short as I can. When people say "freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences", they are generally right, but they are not always using it correctly. No analysis of freedom of speech can be done without involving the idea of power dynamics. The more all encompassing power an entity has over you, the more their actions are closer to "suppressing your free speech" versus "just exercising their own free speech". It's the reason that your electric company is a private companies but is not allowed to ban you for your speech. Public utility and Public Square doctrines recognize this dynamic.

Someone may disagree based on their predisposed ideologies and willingness to pick sides (or hate for Elon?). But at minimum, everyone should be able to sense the difference between the following list of "consequences" from saying something disagreeable. 1 being the closest to "simply exercising their freedom of speech/association" and 6 being definitionally "infringement of your freedom of speech".

1. Your neighbor doesn't like what you said and decided to stop inviting you to his BBQ's. Or someone decides to block you online.
2. Your boss doesn't like what you said and thinks it reflects poorly on the business, so he decides to let you go. Or an owner of a small website or community decides to ban you.
3. A website that hold a large portion of public discourse....so much so that they can make or break employment opportunities in an entire industry and even influence elections to a large degree....bans you for saying something disagreeable.
4. All the top internet websites that together hold 95%+ of public discourse act in concert to ban you from their services for saying something disagreeable. Effectively cutting you off from where most public discourse is done in 2022 (online)
5. The power company turns off your lights for saying something disagreeable.
6. The govt throws you in jail for saying something disagreeable.

The common complaint is that #3 is common and we have been flirting with #4 as a society. Elon firing employees for bad mouthing him is very different and falls squarely in #2.

 

[Antifragile]

Honestly, the entertainment value of Twitter has been off the charts since Elon bought it …

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1591827463583453190

View: https://twitter.com/senmarkey/status/1591827463583453190?s=46&t=RxnuwOUdcph1yjPjprwJTA