Elon Musk buys and ruins Twitter

[Coatigan]

So he wants to set up a super app? He might just be genius if that works out... from trashing twitter to becoming the major player in global finances.

What is a super app?

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

 

[inbetween]

He's trying to take ownership of the brand.

Everyone knows twitter, everyone knows Jack Dorsey created it, everyone knows it was the biggest social media platform in the world before Elon Musk showed up. The bird logo is one of the most recognisable symbols in the world and even all the language of the app, ie 'tweeting' is wrapped up in it.

X? That has no history before Musk, no legacy. X is Elon Musk's thing.

X.com was the original name for Musk's company that eventually merged to become PayPal and this is where he made his first money. He has a lot of history on this and especially in the payments market but very few people will know about it.

I think it actually makes sense because at the moment the payments market is fragmented. If you have an iPhone then you will make payments using Apple Pay but if you have an Android phone then you will use Google Pay. If you don't like either of these then tough you have no choice, you cannot make a phone based contactless card payment without them.

It has nothing to do with targeting some mixture of social media and finance but rather it's all about having everything in one place. Bringing it all into one place makes sense and it makes even more sense if you don't want to rely on being tied to Google or Apple just because you bought a phone made by them.

My guess is X will become a common payment provider which is independent of big companies like Google or Apple and it'll also become your common social media which is independent of the Meta ecosystem whose social media sites come with massive privacy concerns.

I really wouldn't be surprised if X made its own phone in the future as that seems to be where it's heading. There's a big hole in the market for a phone ecosystem that isn't forceably tied to these massive and what have been proven to be relatively dodgy companies.

I won’t be an X customer. Bird goes and I’ll happily go and join threads.

The privacy concerns with Threads are massive. Threads is not a Twitter competitor, Threads is an AI backed data harvester which is reliant on your participation to survive. Threads is only free because you are the product. It will record your participation and then package you into a nice tidy profile which is sold to the highest bidder.

Imagine an election fought on the basis of what political leaders already know about you? Political organisations and campaigns could buy your profile and then use AI to graft ads that target you specifically... Whole campaigns could be shaped by live data, data that you maybe never consented to give. The only line between left and right or truth on that platform will be based upon whoever pays the most.

Anything made by Meta and offered for free should have a warning on the label in my opinion!

 

[denislawsbackheel]

X.com was the original name for Musk's company that eventually merged to become PayPal and this is where he made his first money. He has a lot of history on this and especially in the payments market but very few people will know about it.

I think it actually makes sense because at the moment the payments market is fragmented. If you have an iPhone then you will make payments using Apple Pay but if you have an Android phone then you will use Google Pay. If you don't like either of these then tough you have no choice, you cannot make a phone based contactless card payment without them.

It has nothing to do with targeting some mixture of social media and finance but rather it's all about having everything in one place. Bringing it all into one place makes sense and it makes even more sense if you don't want to rely on being tied to Google or Apple just because you bought a phone made by them.

My guess is X will become a common payment provider which is independent of big companies like Google or Apple and it'll also become your common social media which is independent of the Meta ecosystem whose social media sites come with massive privacy concerns.

I really wouldn't be surprised if X made its own phone in the future as that seems to be where it's heading. There's a big hole in the market for a phone ecosystem that isn't forceably tied to these massive and what have been proven to be relatively dodgy companies.

The privacy concerns with Threads are massive. Threads is not a Twitter competitor, Threads is an AI backed data harvester which is reliant on your participation to survive. Threads is only free because you are the product. It will record your participation and then package you into a nice tidy profile which is sold to the highest bidder.

Imagine an election fought on the basis of what political leaders already know about you? Political organisations and campaigns could buy your profile and then use AI to graft ads that target you specifically... Whole campaigns could be shaped by live data, data that you maybe never consented to give. The only line between left and right or truth on that platform will be based upon whoever pays the most.

Anything made by Meta and offered for free should have a warning on the label in my opinion!

On the other hand most people think Musk is a sociopathic **** who should be cut off at the knees.

 

[Scottyboi]

I think it is crazy to pay for a multi billion dollar brand and change the name. The name and everything associated with the logo is part of the price surely?

I know Facebook now comes under Meta but Facebook itself hasn't rebranded as it would be stupid to do so.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

What is a super app?

We have a few here in Asia. They're typically an app that does loads of different things. So one that I have started as a taxi app, then did food deliveries, and now you can use it to pay in shops, shop online, book hotels, pay bills, buy insurance and it's also a banking app too. The AirAsia app similarly can be used for loads of things. I've got both of them and I still only use the taxi one for taxis and the plane one to book planes. I occasionally use the plane one to book taxis if it's cheaper. The one thing neither of them have is any sort of link to social media.

WeChat in China is the only one I know where social media is linked to all of that other stuff, and that is obviously fantastic if you're an authoritarian regime who likes to keep an eye on what people are saying online.

 

[KS55]

Not sure that super apps are the best way to go. You can lose all services at once if there is a problem at the provider end.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I really wouldn't be surprised if X made its own phone in the future as that seems to be where it's heading. There's a big hole in the market for a phone ecosystem that isn't forceably tied to these massive and what have been proven to be relatively dodgy companies.

No, it would be forcibly tied to another massive and relatively dodgy company.

 

[Ashton Moss Messi]

So he wants to set up a super app? He might just be genius if that works out... from trashing twitter to becoming the major player in global finances.

Maybe trying to do a better version of WeChat - the Chinese use it for loads of stuff - chatting, sending, paying, messaging, etc
He could have called it Twatter, as he is.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

I think it is crazy to pay for a multi billion dollar brand and change the name. The name and everything associated with the logo is part of the price surely?

I know Facebook now comes under Meta but Facebook itself hasn't rebranded as it would be stupid to do so.

Correct. Goodwill is an important part of a company's valuation and the fact that he paid four times it's worth makes it even more daft.

A few months ago he had that daft Dogecoin logo on it.

It's like buying McDonald's and renaming it McDowell's because you think it's hilarious. Only insane egomaniacs have to carry out the joke in real life.