• @Moonrise2473@feddit.it
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    10211 months ago

    The value of his purchase of all that billions was essentially:

    1. The userbase

    2. The branding

    3. The software and the people that built it

    Now that got rid of all three… Wasn’t it 100x cheaper to just buy parler? Or just hire a single developer on Fiverr and start a defederated mastodon server

      • Bad3r
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        4111 months ago

        No one is paying him. He is just a dumbass with money.

      • primalanimist
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        2611 months ago

        I doubt anyone could pay the man enough to blow 40 billion to tank a website. The moment you break something, the users will find a replacement and go there. This purchase was 100% ego. It changed no minds about Elon. His fanboys will still call this genius, and those who already knew he was a manchild are not suddenly thinking this was a mature, well-thought-out plan.

        • @bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          2911 months ago

          We seem to forget this whole “Imma buy Twitter” was, in part, because Twitter refused to disable the account of the kid that was tracking his jet

          • NaN
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            1611 months ago

            Who is still tracking his jet on mastodon and threads. I love it.

          • @Thrashy@beehaw.org
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            1511 months ago

            the kid that was tracking his jet

            The kid that was reposting public flight tracking data of his jet. He’s so fucking petty.

      • The Cuuuuube
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        1811 months ago

        If the goal was just to shut down twitter that could have been accomplished day 1. My theory is he really didn’t think he’d be stuck paying the high price he offered and now his goal is to file for bankruptcy after tanking the company, and to do it he has to look like hes trying to make it work.

        Alternatively. He really is this big an idiot. It would be in line with the moron making an offer twitter couldn’t refuse and then being surprised when they accepted

      • @batcheck@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        Didn’t he get some Saudi funding for the purchase of twitter? Not the entire amount but a portion?

    • brothershamus
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      1411 months ago

      45 Billion bought a lot of eyeballs to watch him flame out over the canyon.

    • @Auzy@beehaw.org
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      311 months ago

      Didn’t he screw up royally and end up having to buy it though or he’d be breaking laws?

    • Liam Mayfair
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      211 months ago

      Lol, knowing our boy Elon, he would’ve managed to run Parler to the ground even harder than they could ever dream

    • @Madcow
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      5911 months ago

      So why are you commenting on a news article about Elon Musk? Already missing the smell?

        • @troye888@lemmy.one
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          611 months ago

          Well it only has 1 user according to the Mozilla store, so no surprise that no one had heard of it.

          • @PeachMan@lemmy.one
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            511 months ago

            I think it’s new, I’ve only seen people sharing it recently (in the past week). That count is likely outdated.

  • sirdorius
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    2211 months ago

    I thought it was some dumb clickbait, but it’s just dumb Elon

      • brothershamus
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        511 months ago

        In a world . . . in which one man spends 45 Billion dollars to destroy a global communications juggernaut in the most assinine, ridiculous ways ever . . . It’s . . . The Rebrandening!

        I mean, if he bought Coca-Cola and replaced sugar with vinegar, it’d be news, right?

  • cryshlee
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    2011 months ago

    It’s even more hideous than I was expecting. How is that even possible

  • amio
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    2011 months ago

    Ah yes, the edgiest of letters. That fits pretty well, actually.

  • @Railison@aussie.zone
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    11 months ago

    I remember visiting X.com in 2000 or so. Was a bank type website, which PayPal bought up. That’s probably how he got control of the domain. (ETA: more accurate answer below!)

    But also, looks like the X11 logo

    • @zark@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      X.com was the online bank that Musk co-founded and that some time after it merged with Confinity Inc. changed its name to PayPal (PayPal was a product of Confinity).

    • deong
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      1711 months ago

      If I recall correctly, he had the x.com domain and tried to rebrand PayPal to X. The board went, “are you a fucking idiot?” and replace him with Peter Thiel.

      He’s been trying to call stuff “X” since he was an edgy teenager. He just never had the good sense to grow out of it, and he fell ass backward into enough money that we all get to watch him go all “Star Wars kid” over and over again in public.

      • LeighM
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        711 months ago

        LOL @ Star Wars kid comment. Gave me a good chuckle. But, that’s not fair to the real Star Wars kid, my brother was just enjoying being him, living his best life! You do him dirty by debasing him to Musk’s level 😂

        • brothershamus
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          111 months ago

          It’s true, the real star wars kid is way healthier than this guy. Billionaire is a kind of disease.

  • LoafyLemon
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    1711 months ago

    I wonder what Xorg Foundation thinks of him using their logo.

    • Liam Mayfair
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      811 months ago

      The x.com domain was originally purchased by PayPal for over $8m back when Elon was still at the company. No one knows how much PayPal asked Elon for it back in 2017 when he bought it from them, but it was rumoured to be an eight digit figure.

  • @Tibert@compuverse.uk
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    1311 months ago

    Well, with all the porn on twitter, it may be an appropriate name.

    There are already jokes in brand names like from French :

    Official “X” account Msi France

    • @greeen_tomato@feddit.de
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      711 months ago

      That’s why they went with PayPal instead of x.com for the payment business. It’s funny that he takes that name out of the closet again.

      • wjrii
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        1111 months ago

        It’s better. He specifically went out and PAID to buy the domain back from Paypal because he was so sure he’d need it again.

  • @accentgrave@lemm.ee
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    1111 months ago

    Everything he’s done with Twitter is great. It was time someone brought it down a couple dozen notches. Here’s hoping someone will do the same to Meta next.

    • @bigkix@lemm.ee
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      611 months ago

      I’m on Twitter for a long time now and nothing really changed. No one left. People that lean left are bitching about the platform but continue to tweet. Previously, the same was done by right leaning people.

      • hoodatninja
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        11 months ago

        Twitter has lost over 10% of its users and engagement/monthly active users is down, Musk even admits they’ve lost users. Traffic is also going down with the API change/requirement to be on Twitter proper, as well as limiting the number of tweets one can see.

        Considering how much a Twitter is bots, that means the number of actual people who left is actually much higher. So yeah, something did change lol just because you haven’t noticed it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

        Edit: I’m not sure why you are talking about left and right users tbh. Seems like you’re kind of shoehorning a “both sides“ comment since no one is talking politics here.

      • Puppy
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        1111 months ago

        Yeah nah, pretty much everybody of importance left the platform quite some time ago actually. Twitter truly has turned to shit too. All you see in your feed is the same extreme-right propaganda we’ve seen for 4+ years since the pandemic. It’s just that now it’s boosted by Elon’s fuckery. Also, there’s a reason why they’re begging us to come back.

        They created their own little echo chamber and now they have nobody to argue with. That’s what happen when a far-right social media is created usually. They realize they aren’t the powerhouse they thought they were and all of a sudden it’s just “uh, where is everybody?!?!?”

        If you want my opinion, it’s 1000% deserved and they can suck my dick, I ain’t coming back just to hear “VACCINE BAD ORANGE MAN GOD PLS JOIN US WE CAN KILL EVERYBODY THAT LOOKS LIKE A JEW!”

        Noooooooo thank you

      • brothershamus
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        811 months ago

        Well you’re not on Twitter now, are you. Neither is anyone else. Also they’re not tweeting anymore, they’re . . . xing? And per the article that was the last email from the twitter.com domain (supposedly) so . . what, is it x.com now?

        The guy’s, like, a 5-D chess jenius.

        • GunnarRunnar
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          1311 months ago

          The biggest wtf in this is that tweeting, a term that’s been ingrained into modern lexicon, is becoming irrelevant. That’s like the greatest advertisement you can have for your platform.

        • primalanimist
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          1111 months ago

          Over 50% of its advertisers left. That means most of the brands are not interested in the kind of people left in the toxic wasteland called X.

        • loobkoob
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          611 months ago

          Also they’re not tweeting anymore, they’re . . .

          Spewing xcrement

      • yildo
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        411 months ago

        I left in November and deleted my account in December. Mastodon/the Fediverse is what I always wanted Twitter to be but it never was

      • Jaysyn
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        311 months ago

        I disabled my account the day Muskrat was forced to buy Twitter due to his own stupidity.

      • @Seathru@beehaw.org
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        311 months ago

        I know. I really want to like turn based tactical games but the RNGs end up making me rage quit before I can get into them.

  • Ragnell
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    1011 months ago

    Everyone who called Firefish stupid needs to come see this and reconsider.