ELON MUSK IS NOT GENEROUS
You must be aware that the richest man in the world who bought Twitter last year October have started paying a huge and competitive amount to its users who meet the required criteria. Tweeting for fun or interest is now turning into tweeting for money.
But why is he doing this? Does it mean that he is very generous? Where is the money coming from? And so on.
You may not know why he is paying hundreds of thousands of naira from what is called “ads revenue sharing” but one thing you should bear in mind is that he is not doing charity and he is not acting nice. There’s surely something more.
When my wife asked me: “Why did he spend such an amount to buy Twitter”. I told her: “Imagine Elon Musk as a rich man who saw an artwork that he loved so much and decided to pay any amount to have it”. Though a businessman and investor, his first aim of buying Twitter is not business but adding to his catalogue of luxury. While he could buy a gold-plated house or car, he bought Twitter for an irresistible amount.
In his expressions, you will realize that he saw Twitter as a platform that he likes and that he can further slim fit to what he really wants it to look like.
His first idea was to have its users verified! This, he believes would reduce bots (fake) accounts and give authenticity to whatever they Tweet. To make it make sense and to enrol a lot of people on it, he asked people to pay for! This was a welcomed development by many who have been feeling cheated for not having the verified blue tick all the while. But to some of those who had it already, they felt it was a wrong move to give it out to TOM, DICK AND HARRY just for a few amount.
Then he added salt to the injury: he asked those who were formerly honoured with the blue tick for free to PAY for continued use. This vexed a lot of important figures and celebrities. Many vowed not to pay and to participate less on Twitter.
That and some other changes he was making to suit his dream of the bird app (Twitter) continued to get some people angry. Some companies also decided to reduce or stop advertising on Twitter.
Some people decided to take advantage of the situation by creating Twitter-like apps to compete and draw people away. The prominent among them was Blue Sky launched by Jack, former CEO of Twitter.
Mere the fact that Elon Musk could wake up one morning to decide what happens on his Twitter as the sole landlord gets people pissed. For instance, at his discretion, he granted the power to edit tweets to those who are verified only. Others cannot edit if they make mistakes. They will have to delete it. Again, he said those with the blue ticks could tweet more words at a go than those without it. He was doing all these to make the blue tick enticing. He knew many people could afford it but they were just being stubborn. He also decided to remain stubborn. The one he did that got people most angry was to limit the number of tweets that those without the blue tick could see in a day. That seems to be the height of it. Many vowed to vacate his house or participate less. That was when Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg showed up!
Mark announced he was launching his Twitter-like app, “Thread”. And without wasting time, it was released. People started downloading it. If not for anything, to spite Elon Musk. Elon vowed to sue (I don’t know how far with that) but I guessed he figured a better way to handle the situation- MONEY SHARING.
Forget all the anger people were having and the vow they had made never to buy or pay for the Twitter verification, money changed everything! To partake in the ads revenue sharing, you must pay for the verification ($8 or #3500-#5000 for Nigerians) and the more you tweet, the more you make! The system is simple. “Ads revenue sharing” means, “from the money companies that advertise on Twitter pay, we will give you a share but that means, we can show their advert under your posts”. This has made a lot of influencers to start replying comments under their tweets for more engagements.
Will Twitter make more money than before? I don’t think so. Even if they realize more money from the adverts, they are also giving out much more as well.
Will he stop the payout anytime soon? He has the power but I don’t think so. Many social media does it only that he has fewer conditions and he pays more.
Will the amount he pays reduce with time? Most likely. You can only share what you have and the more people that subscribe to it, the less each will get.
So, what does Elon Musk tend to gain in all of this since he is not acting generous or doing charity? HE IS KILLING COMPETITION.
There are more rules and changes, he will make on Twitter going forward but people won’t complain or threaten to leave because there is MONEY FOR YOU if you stay. For instance, he is changing the Twitter name and logo to X. He also said he will remove the BLOCK features. And people are not complaining. Rather, they are tweeting more aggressively.
If you read this to the end, take ❤️