Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy as more senior executives quit | Hacker News Reader

Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy as more senior executives quit

reuters.com

13 pointsmarban10 comments

I will remember 2022 as the year that delivered the two costliest tech industry self-goals in my 40-year career: Musk/Twitter and Zuckerberg/Meta tanking because of hubris and god complexes. The billions lost by these two unchecked egomaniacs would make me laugh, except for the thousands of people put out of their jobs because of mismanagement and greed.

I can't even imagine the level of willful ignorance required to buy a money-losing company for $44 billion, do no due diligence and try to wriggle out of the deal, then talk about bankruptcy less than a week after taking over.

Elon is a fraud by every sense of the word - intellectually, in business, and emotionally.

Every one of those pillars bankrupting him would give me infinite joy, after his family's exploitation of so many respectful lives.

Regardless of how you feel about him as a person, this statement is a long stretch. Tesla, SpaceX, and his other companies have been able to accomplish pretty amazing things. To add to that, Musk wasn’t just some investor or people manager, but he’s been actively involved in engineering decisions, at least at SpaceX.

I feel like posts like this are pretty low quality and better suited for Reddit (or maybe even Twitter).

I’m personally not a fan of Musk or any other celebrity/billionaire buying out companies just because they feel like it, and potentially gutting what many hard working people probably put their soul into building. On the other hand, there’s a more nuanced, stimulating discussion that can be had instead of “bankrupting him would give me infinite joy.”

No surprise Yoel left.. After he advertised his new spam reduction alg, Elon posted a poll and few said they noticed an improvement.

That's the problem with relying on a specific metric of spam, if you can measure it, it might be easy to block, but it doesn't necessarily represent real spam prevalence.

Every user on Twitter should be paying a monthly fee with one-time service fees for those who want additional verification and services.

The fact Netflix/Disney/Hulu/Amazon/Apple make as much as they do is crazy compared to how much people use Twitter for free.

Advertising models are absolute dogshit that never really worked. People will pay for access if you improve the experience - like no ads from the get go.

Never really worked? How do you think Meta/Facebook and Google got so rich? The television and media companies before them? Subscriptions can work too but you need a product people want that no one else can offer. Apple and Disney have that, but I doubt Twitter does.

I'm speaking specifically about social media; like the one Google shut down because it wasn't viable. Facebook/Meta still don't make money for most their clients they simply promise returns and marketing depts have to utilize them because everyone else is and it's mostly fueled by leverage.

In my experience, advertising isn't worth it if you aren't a large corp. with access to debt and require a presence and even then it's mostly a loss leader.

I often wonder how companies make so much money selling advertising. I don't think I respond to advertising, but hard to know for sure since I get exposed to it non-stop everywhere I look. I agree that smaller companies don't seem to get return on advertising spend, at least I've never seen it happen.

The network's only value is because it is publicly available.

Destroy that and there is no value to Twitter. Alternatives will grow & flourish & the chapter of greatness & success will close.

I don't see how you defend such a small view, of limitation & constraint & denial.

Which services will people flock to? Mastodon and the Fediverse? Matrix? WhatsApp? Back to Facebook?

I think you seriously overestimate how easily people change. Likely, because you aren't afraid of it. Most are and would pay to keep from having to do it; especially if you incentivize it with an improved experience.

I'd agree people will switch to free platforms if too many changes take place at once as it would basically be the same thing as finding something new. I.E. Payments + Verification + Everything X whatever app crap. etc.

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