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 need to try this. But, if the choices he’s making are any indication, it virtually looks as if that’s the plan.

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

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

It’s additionally about when Klout debuted, the vainness system to let others know the way essential 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 continuously, and began babysitting our social feeds. Someday, 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 varieties of Twitter customers. There are well-known folks after which there’s the remainder of us. Like every 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 plenty 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 completed? Banned distant work. Fired half the workers and a couple of executives together with the CEO. Advised everybody the highway forward will likely be powerful and chapter isn’t out of the query. Recommended that half the income for Twitter has to return from subscriptions. (By the way in which, that’s like saying half your income ought to come from folks 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 essential. At Tesla, Musk is used to creating a stellar product price 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 making a living if you present advertisements to customers, you’d assume promoting could be somewhat extra of a spotlight.

It virtually looks as if 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, except it needs to be a non-profit. You can also’t have each worlds: a industrial enterprise attempting to promote blue test verifications and a non-profit attempting to assert openness and freedom. They will’t co-exist.

Musk just lately posted about how Twitter will do a number of dumb issues. (Requiring 80-hour work weeks and canceling the free meals may be 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 likely be a number of collateral harm when that occurs.

Sadly, I don’t assume social media customers assume that manner. We leap onto apps like BeReal as a result of they do one thing new and enjoyable. We don’t need or anticipate 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 any center floor.

So what’s Elon Musk doing?

I ponder generally. Possibly he purchased the corporate so he might hearth the chief group. 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 virtually zero. Possibly he simply likes to create memes and wished to ensure that was attainable.

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

I need to see if Twitter can change into 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.