Elon Musk purchased Twitter for US$44bil (RM204bil) lately.
And he did it in typical outlandish Musk type, carrying a kitchen sink into the Twitter places of work – to “let that sink in”? I suppose. It was undoubtedly Musk declaring victory in buying the social media community, and positive sufficient he tweeted, “The bird is freed”.
Musk is Twitter’s saviour. Or at the very least that’s the image he’s portray. But keep in mind, he didn’t need to really purchase the corporate. He supplied to purchase Twitter earlier in 2021 after which flip-flopped about it, and Twitter sued Musk to make him honour his dedication to, mainly, overpay. So Musk shopping for Twitter isn’t a win, it’s an enormous loss for him, regardless of him getting forward of the narrative to play it like that is what he wished all alongside.
Now he’s scrambling to work out how to make cash from Twitter. The platform is superb at spreading information and knowledge in real-time however nobody has actually discovered how to monetise it.
Musk’s first concept – which he compelled Twitter engineers to keep within the places of work and work on over his first weekend as Twit Overlord – was to get customers to pay for his or her blue verification ticks. Eight bucks a month (RM37).
Then Musk, ever the free speech fanatic, banned American comic Kathie Griffin for “impersonating him”, and said that imposter accounts had to labelled clearly as parody or they’d face lifetime bans. A free speech fanatic making the parody label itself a parody is, you guessed it, parody. Or it must be.
Now there’s discuss that finally Musk needs to put all of Twitter behind a paywall.
Doesn’t sound like an open public sq.. Sounds extra like a cash seize by somebody who has realised there’s no method this firm he simply purchased goes to generate sufficient income to pay again the billions he borrowed to purchase it within the first place.
And sure, Musk is among the world’s richest individuals, however that’s principally tied up within the inventory of his electrical automobile firm, Tesla. To purchase Twitter he wanted assist from American banks and the Saudis. And make certain that everybody who gave Musk cash goes to need that cash again in some unspecified time in the future.
But who is aware of, perhaps Musk’s plans to cost for the blue tick and put Twitter behind a paywall will work. After all, Musk constructed Tesla. Helped construct PayPal again within the infancy of the Internet, he’s smarter than you! And Musk is most undoubtedly smarter than me, and a a lot better enterprise particular person – however let’s be clear about one factor: ego trumps intelligence.
And I do know ego.
And that’s what I scent throughout Elon Musk. All over his tweets. All over his preening appearances the place he’s making duck lips posing for photographs on the Met Ball whereas his mum laughs behind him like he’s a preteen boy simply having some enjoyable and never a 51-year-old man who ought to know higher.
This picture of Musk because the world’s smartest man, tech genius, carrying leather-based jackets, slim-cut denims and plain T-shirts is all a fastidiously cultivated creation.
If you see photos of the actual Musk, who he was earlier than all this, balding, geeky smile, he appears each bit the tech nerd. He additionally appears like a pleasant man. Bright, gifted, sure for nice issues.
But the geek finally determined he didn’t need to be a geek anymore. He clearly received a hair transplant, a stylist, perhaps even some writers to assist him seem witty on Twitter. And you realize what, all that’s positive too. Go for it.
But don’t begin believing your individual hype.
Musk, who in all probability needs to be the closest factor we’ve to a real-life Tony Stark, is consuming his personal Kool-Aid. And now he’s bought his personal favorite app in Twitter and there’s a model of the long run the place this doesn’t finish effectively for him.
Does he have a plan? I’m positive he does, however keep in mind, all that intelligence is ineffective if Musk has let his ego take management.
What if Musk’s priorities aren’t innovation and enterprise as a lot as they’re attention-seeking to make up for all these years of getting to earn the highlight? If that’s the case, the Musk that owns Twitter is a really completely different Musk than the one who received him there.
Big Smile, No Teeth columnist Jason Godfrey – a mannequin who as soon as was advised to give the digicam a ‘big smile, no teeth’ – has labored internationally for 20 years in trend and continues to work in dramas, documentaries, and way of life programming. Write to him at way of [email protected] and comply with him on Instagram @bigsmilenoteeth and fb.com/bigsmilenoteeth. The views expressed listed here are solely the author’s personal.
