Is Elon Musk Making an attempt To Destroy Twitter?

Right here’s a query I’ve been questioning about:

Is Elon Musk attempting to destroy Twitter?

I’m unsure why the brand new proprietor of the social media app would wish to do this. But, if the selections he’s making are any indication, it nearly looks like that’s the plan.

For starters, Musk has targeted an excessive amount of on the blue verify verification. If this vainness image is meant to be a income generator, the “actual” person base just isn’t shopping for it. Actually.

The blue verify has a decidedly 2010 really feel to it. That was when a few of us cared about verified accounts, which turned a risk round that point (or a minimum of that’s when a few of us began excited about it — the blue verify system truly launched in 2009).

It’s additionally about when Klout debuted, the vainness system to let others understand how necessary you might be. I’m unsure once we stopped caring about it, however the development went one thing like this: First, we thought verification and Klout scores meant one thing. So we labored on our follower counts, posted consistently, and began babysitting our social feeds. In the future, possibly round 2014 or so, a few of us (me included) realized it was all a waste of time.

We realized, too, that there are two forms of Twitter customers. There are well-known individuals after which there’s the remainder of us. Like all true democracy, versus a tyranny or a monarchy, everyone knows an app doesn’t stay or die primarily based on Kim Kardashian’s posting schedule. It’s when the lots flock to an app and it turns into a part of the tradition. That’s when actual progress occurs. Twitter has caught round, and so has Kim, however I’m beginning to doubt whether or not it has any actual cultural cachet anymore.

What else has Musk achieved? Banned distant work. Fired half the workers and a couple of executives together with the CEO. Informed everybody the highway forward will probably be powerful and chapter just isn’t out of the query. Recommended that half the income for Twitter has to come back from subscriptions. (By the way in which, that’s like saying half your income ought to come from individuals paying for unsolicited mail.)

After which there’s the failed promoting mannequin. Musk appears to be cannibalizing it versus enabling it. Possibly he doesn’t assume nurturing advertiser relationships is that necessary. At Tesla, Musk is used to creating a stellar product value shopping for. Twitter is free; it barely makes a product in any respect. We’re the product.

For an organization like Twitter that’s constructed fully on the thought of creating wealth while you present advertisements to customers, you’d assume promoting could be a bit extra of a spotlight.

It nearly looks like Elon Musk views Twitter as a democratization zone, a spot for open and free speech on a platform accessible to everybody. The issue is that that is additionally true of Linux, Wikipedia, and the native library.

Twitter is a industrial enterprise. It may possibly’t be fully open and free, until it needs to be a non-profit. You can also’t have each worlds: a industrial enterprise attempting to promote blue verify verifications and a non-profit attempting to say openness and freedom. They’ll’t co-exist.

Musk not too long ago posted about how Twitter will do loads of dumb issues. (Requiring 80-hour work weeks and canceling the free meals is perhaps two of them.) He appears to be hinting at a rebuilding of the empire. In an effort to develop, the corporate has to reinvent itself, and there will probably be loads of collateral injury when that occurs.

Sadly, I don’t assume social media customers assume that means. We leap onto apps like BeReal as a result of they do one thing new and enjoyable. We don’t need or count on anybody to do a foundational realignment or work on the structure. If there’s work to do on an app it’s already too late. We additionally don’t care how the corporate makes cash. The product is both worthwhile or has worn out its welcome. There isn’t a center floor.

So what’s Elon Musk doing?

I’m wondering typically. Possibly he purchased the corporate so he might hearth the chief crew. Possibly he believes the open supply mannequin for software program has some viability within the social media market, regardless of the income potential of that being nearly zero. Possibly he simply likes to create memes and wished to be sure that was doable.

I’ll say: I’m fascinated by the dumpster hearth.

I wish to see if Twitter can turn out to be the Tesla of social media, however I’m additionally curious if that is simply one other apocalypse of know-how. I imply, along with Fb.