Support NeoGAF

[DanteFox]

Can we take a moment to remember the smug, delusional posters from one year ago who were sure he wouldn't buy it?

Remember the people who were sure Twitter would descend into a Nazi hellhole because people would no longer be banned for saying a man can't become a woman?

Remember the people who said Twitter would go bankrupt because the users would leave, the advertisers would flee, and Mastodon would take over?

Remember when people assured us that Twitter would grind to a halt and the servers would irreparably crash because Elon fired 80% of the staff, who it turned out were just wasting time in pointless meetings and debating about changing icon colors in the app?

Remember how people were sure Twitter wouldn't last one year because Elon was changing too many things that the brilliant Jack Dorsey had established and that Elon didn't understand how to run a tech company?

Yeah.... I remember that too. Fun times. Would anyone like to come forward and admit they were wrong? I would honestly have massive respect for anyone that has the integrity to do that

 

[FullMetalx117]

I like X logo/name. But it’s becoming the equivalent of those random spam calls I get on the daily

 

[Raonak]

It was/is pretty much a dissaster like everyone predicted.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

The Twitter/X Musk Saga is like the Special Olympics on both sides.

Meaning I don't watch it or root for individual athletes.

 

[newtypepilot]

found Elon's alt

 

[kanjobazooie]

Are you one of Elon Musk's 500 kids?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm a TSLA shareholder. It's been an absolutely shitty year. My confidence in Elon and in my investment has never been lower in all the years I've held this stock.

 

[EviLore]

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/26/x-twitter-usage-statistics-elon-musk-owner

"

• App downloads fell roughly 38% globally between October 2022 and September 2023, according to Sensor Tower estimates. In the U.S., mobile app downloads fell 57% in the same time period. Data from Data.AI, another app tracking firm, shows similar trends.
• Usage has also decreased, with monthly active Android users falling 14.8% globally and 17.8% with mobile users in the U.S. year-over-year for the month of September, per SimilarWeb.
• Average time spent, daily per user, fell 2% year-over-year globally in the third quarter of 2023. Sessions dipped 4% in that same time period, per Sensor Tower.
• User churn, or users who stop using the app, increased more than 30% year-over-year as of September 2023, per Sensor Tower.
• Web traffic was down 7% globally and 11.6% in the U.S. for the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, per SimilarWeb.

Yes, but: There are some bright spots.

• Global first-time downloads of the X mobile app were flat in the past year compared to the year prior to Musk buying the company, per Data.ai.
• Traffic to Elon Musk's personal profile and posts were up 96% year-over-year in September

"

 

[Unknown Soldier]

X says it is worth $19bn one year after Elon Musk’s $44bn acquisition

Social media platform to award equity to employees at $45 a share

www.ft.com

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has valued its equity at $19bn, the company told employees, a year after Elon Musk acquired it in a $44bn deal.In an internal note sent to staffers on Monday, the company said it was awarding equity, or restricted stock units, to employees at $45 a share, according to two people familiar with the matter. Based on the employee equity plan, that gives it a valuation of around $19bn, the document said.The new valuation, first reported by Fortune, comes a year after Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla chief executive, acquired the company for $44bn, including $13bn of debt, just before a tech stock sell-off.The banks that helped finance the deal — Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, BNP Paribas, Mizuho and Société Générale — have been stuck with the debt tied to the acquisition, and are nursing paper losses as the company’s value has plummeted. In late March, Musk offered Twitter employees stock awards based on a valuation of about $20bn at the time, according to The Information.X has struggled to bring in revenues after many marketers pulled their ad dollars last year, citing concerns over Musk’s decision to relax moderation on the platform due to his free speech ideals. Despite embarking on a dramatic cost-cutting drive and reducing headcount by more than 80 per cent to 1,500, Musk said in July that the company was “still negative cash flow” due to a drop in advertising revenue of about 50 per cent “plus heavy debt load”. X has been attempting to woo back advertisers and diversify revenues into areas such as subscriptions. At an all-hands meeting last week, Musk and X chief executive Linda Yaccarino told staff of plans to invest in facilitating payments and offering financial services via the platform in a challenge to the banking sector.On a call with bankers in October, Yaccarino said that revenues grew in the high-single digit percentage in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to one person who listened to the call. She also said she hoped that X, which has 245mn daily active users, would be turning a profit by early 2024.

Imagine pretending that spending a year setting $25 billion on fire and launching it into the Sun is somehow a win.

 

[Spukc]

Good good kill it

 

[Slayer-33]

X says it is worth $19bn one year after Elon Musk’s $44bn acquisition

Social media platform to award equity to employees at $45 a share

www.ft.com

Imagine pretending that spending a year setting $25 billion on fire and launching it into the Sun is somehow a win.

Lmfao, ain't that the truth..

 

[ape2man]

Well, i made some nice money off of elon's stupidity. That company was never worth the price he paid for it. Who cares now any way, he was so convinced of his own success that he stopped listening to the advisers around him.

 

[GHG]

• Traffic to Elon Musk's personal profile and posts were up 96% year-over-year in September

He might argue it was worth it then.

 

[Goalus]

Well, i made some nice money off of elon's stupidity. That company was never worth the price he paid for it. Who cares now any way, he was so convinced of his own success that he stopped listening to the advisers around him.

Aquiring a publicly traded company requires the buyer to overpay, so I don't see how Elon is stupid if he wanted to have that company. Three years ago I paid €35k for a Honda e because I wanted to have that car. Am I stupid? - Depends on whom you ask.

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s turned to absolute shit in every measure possible OP. I’m gonna guess you’re an Elon Stan who doesn’t actually use the platform.

 

[DKehoe]

Aquiring a publicly traded company requires the buyer to overpay, so I don't see how Elon is stupid if he wanted to have that company. Three years ago I paid €35k for a Honda e because I wanted to have that car. Am I stupid? - Depends on whom you ask.

Didn’t he not want to actually buy it, tried to pull out and basically got forced to follow through on the offer he’d made?

 

[Goalus]

Didn’t he not want to actually buy it, tried to pull out and basically got forced to follow through on the offer he’d made?

True, but he would have never made an offer if he didn't want to buy them. Maybe he later realized what it would actually cost him and then tried to pull out. After being forced to close the deal, he got what he originally wanted - at a high price, but a price that anyone would have had to pay to buy them out.

 

[Drew1440]

I've defiantly started using it a lot more, and the community notes feature is amazing when you even see it on some of the adverts that are misleading.
The X branding still does not sit right, though I can see why he wanted to get rid of the old Twitter legacy branding and stigma.

 

[Ribi]

Why can't people see Elon bought Twitter as a fuck you?

They censored him so he said "ok I'm gnna buy your ass and destroy what you made and make it my own."

Changed the revenue model
Changed the name as a fuck you
Even went of of his way to make it function worse than before.

It's just a fuck you to the guys who fucked him over because he has the money. It's not a creative way for him to make money it's just a fuck you

 

[Midnight Bliss]

A Japanese person once asked someone if they were below the handicap person. That's most elon fans

 

[DKehoe]

I've defiantly started using it a lot more, and the community notes feature is amazing when you even see it on some of the adverts that are misleading.
The X branding still does not sit right, though I can see why he wanted to get rid of the old Twitter legacy branding and stigma.

Community notes has been a really good feature. And like you say it’s cool that adverts aren’t exempt from it. It’s great when you see one of those shitty mobile games trying to pass itself off as something else and the community note points out that the real game is nothing like that.

 

[Trilobit]

Why can't people see Elon bought Twitter as a fuck you?

They censored him so he said "ok I'm gnna buy your ass and destroy what you made and make it my own."

Changed the revenue model
Changed the name as a fuck you
Even went of of his way to make it function worse than before.

It's just a fuck you to the guys who fucked him over because he has the money. It's not a creative way for him to make money it's just a fuck you

I'm going to refuse Elon using my car. If he wants it he can buy it for $1 billion and drive it into a wall as an insult to me. I'll be devastated!

 

[Ozriel]

It used to have a bot problem.

Now it has an even bigger bot problem, with blue checks and amplified post reach, pushing propaganda.

It’s much worse.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

It certainly made the platform even more of a shithole. Glad I closed my Twitter account years ago.

 

[Portugeezer]

I don't post much on it, but I've definitely viewed more posts on it than I used to... So is that a win for X?

 

[ape2man]

Aquiring a publicly traded company requires the buyer to overpay, so I don't see how Elon is stupid if he wanted to have that company. Three years ago I paid €35k for a Honda e because I wanted to have that car. Am I stupid? - Depends on whom you ask.

Paying 44% over the traded stock price was a bit much dont you think?

Why can't people see Elon bought Twitter as a fuck you?

They censored him so he said "ok I'm gnna buy your ass and destroy what you made and make it my own."

Changed the revenue model
Changed the name as a fuck you
Even went of of his way to make it function worse than before.

It's just a fuck you to the guys who fucked him over because he has the money. It's not a creative way for him to make money it's just a fuck you

43 billion is high price to pay for a fuck you.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

What did he do with his sink?

 

[Ribi]

Paying 44% over the traded stock price was a bit much dont you think?



43 billion is high price to pay for a fuck you.

Drop in the bucket for him let's be real

 

[MMaRsu]

And its turned to absolute shit.

Thanks Elon!

 

[bender]

Drop in the bucket for him let's be real

Do some research about Musk's worth and then we can be real.

 

[Astral Dog]

Twitter still a mess, but its better than it was before people can look at actual news now and community notes help embarrass those liar politicians ,its a good feature there has been exposure on gender ideology as well

Elon took a big risk buying Twitter i worry they will take it down any day but so far it survives

 

[Mistake]

I'm glad twitter is getting back to its roots of being a dumpster fire of hot takes, but no, it's not doing "better" overall. The name change is dumb and the brand is in the toilet

 

[JonSnowball]

Elon has taught us a true lesson: even the fundamentally retarded can reach the absolute heights of success. Great work, Retardo!

 

[StreetsofBeige]

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/26/x-twitter-usage-statistics-elon-musk-owner

"

• App downloads fell roughly 38% globally between October 2022 and September 2023, according to Sensor Tower estimates. In the U.S., mobile app downloads fell 57% in the same time period. Data from Data.AI, another app tracking firm, shows similar trends.
• Usage has also decreased, with monthly active Android users falling 14.8% globally and 17.8% with mobile users in the U.S. year-over-year for the month of September, per SimilarWeb.
• Average time spent, daily per user, fell 2% year-over-year globally in the third quarter of 2023. Sessions dipped 4% in that same time period, per Sensor Tower.
• User churn, or users who stop using the app, increased more than 30% year-over-year as of September 2023, per Sensor Tower.
• Web traffic was down 7% globally and 11.6% in the U.S. for the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, per SimilarWeb.

Yes, but: There are some bright spots.

• Global first-time downloads of the X mobile app were flat in the past year compared to the year prior to Musk buying the company, per Data.ai.
• Traffic to Elon Musk's personal profile and posts were up 96% year-over-year in September

"

So basically everything is shit, but somehow with whats remaining are people funneling to his page? Oddly lol.

Well, he does love attention.

 

[EviLore]

So basically everything is shit, but somehow with whats remaining are people funneling to his page? Oddly lol.

Well, he does love attention.

When he took over Twitter he had the feed algorithm changed to artificially boost his account’s visibility. It came to light when he open sourced the algo.

 

[Ribi]

Do some research about Musk's worth and then we can be real.

Drop in the bucket let's be real

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Anybody else see that cool interview he just did on Rogan? Love that part in the beginning where he shoots the arrow into the cyber truck

 

[thefool]

At least its not censoring presidents of western countries.

MSM will keep hating it, but their web of lies is crumbling.

 

[Xenon]

After the tech industry Glenned Parlor in front of the world to make sure everyone fell in line, Elon buying Twitter was probably the most consequential purchase in the tech landscape. It wasn't so much about making Twitter a more success product as it was stopping Twitter from being what it was, which I recall being about 25% bots back then. Dude used his power to battle a monopoly that seeks to shape the world despite the obvious risks that very few people who are in that position would take. Though I can think of one other.

 

[Whitecrow]

Users who wanted a echo chamber left.
Thats a win.

 

[DrFigs]

I think he successfully proved that these social media companies re way too bloated. they simply have too many employees. but at the same time, he did so many other wrong things that sabotaged the company anyway.

 

[AlphaDump]

What did he do with his sink?

He clearly implemented it as their primary business strategy.

 

[ape2man]

He might argue it was worth it then.

I could generate that traffic for the amount of money hey payed for Twitter

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Just imagine it as a slow, smothering death rather than a decapitation

 

[LegendOfKage]

Musk has done a lot of things that I think are either stupid or hypocritical, but for a moment consider what the Israel thread would look like without any twitter posts. One year later and Twitter is still by far the most important social media platform. It's not even close.

 

[Kilau]

Just imagine it as a slow, smothering death rather than a decapitation

Holy shit, $40billion lol. Probably says a lot about the volatility of that stock I guess. Anyway, Twitter/X has gotten a lot worse in the last few months. I also no longer get push notifications, not sure if that’s on X or Apple though.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Musk has done a lot of things that I think are either stupid or hypocritical, but for a moment consider what the Israel thread would look like without any twitter posts. One year later and Twitter is still by far the most important social media platform. It's not even close.

He has nothing to do with its importance and everything to do with its circling the drain.

Btw notice we all still call it Twitter

 

[LegendOfKage]

Just imagine it as a slow, smothering death rather than a decapitation

And as one twitter user explained:

"Media Matters ran a hit piece with unverified screenshots claiming ads ran next to “anti-semitic content.” IBM pulled all ads on X within hours to save face."


What EXACTLY did he say, or "retweet" in this instance? Because of the hit pieces and unfounded advertising pressure campaigns of the past, I'm thinking this is likely BS. We can't even get half of congress to take this strong a stance on this topic, and I'm supposed to believe Musk is antisemitic?

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Syphon Filter]

The X is corny, bring back the bird..