Wait who thinks what Elon did with Twitter was a success?
While it hasn’t fully collapsed like some predicted, it seems like a total unmitigated failure in any standard economic or business terms. It’s been a success only in terms of providing a bigger mouthpiece to Elon and those he favors, not a typical metric of corporate success.
In that regards, yes what is happening at the federal government mimics Twitter - making the government worse in terms of any usual metric of government performance but making it better in terms of carrying out arbitrary whims of a leader.
Well, years later the website is still operational and the company still seems functional after Musk cut 80+% of the staff, which to me is pretty mind blowing. I'd call that pretty successful. If I, as the end user, can't tell the difference between pre-80% and post-80% cut twitter then what value was that 80% bringing to the organization, exactly?
Well, it's an incredibly unpleasant place to be, the curation is terrible, ads are dregs of the internet, and they no longer allow public access to the site or API in any meaningful way. Yay.
Lost massive amount of revenue so other financial partners on the deal had to write it down substantially- is losing money a successful investment in your book?
Well revenue cratered and that’s usually a critical business metric for financially viable businesses
Reminds me the joke of how to become a millionaire that’s basically start with a billion and invest in xyz terrible idea. That’s basically twitter, a shell of its former revenue and status.
There are many legitimate reasons to criticize Elon, but I think you are mistaken about this one.
After years of implementing no new functionality at twitter, Elon cut 75% of the workforce and in a relatively short time that followed they implemented:
Expanded Content Capabilities: Users can now post long-form content, including articles up to 25,000 characters, and upload videos up to three hours in length.
AI Integration: The platform introduced "Grok," an AI chatbot developed by xAI, integrated into X to provide real-time assistance and content summarization.
Job Search Functionality: X added a job search feature, allowing users to explore employment opportunities directly on the platform.
Financial Services: Plans were announced for "X Money Account," a digital wallet enabling real-time payments and fund transfers, developed in partnership with Visa.
Communication Tools: Audio and video calling features were introduced, expanding the platform's communication capabilities.
Content Monetization: Users can now earn income from engagement on their posts.
Many more things... tiered subscription plans, overhaul of moderation policies, community notes expansion, algorithm changes.
They were able to do all these things with a 75% reduction in workforce. Don't you find that interesting? If it had nothing to do with Elon, what would you think about it?
It's also been reported that X/Twitter is now more profitable than it has ever been. It's revenue may have shrunk, I am not sure, but even if it's true cherry-picking that fact isn't intellectually honest.
Wait who thinks what Elon did with Twitter was a success?
While it hasn’t fully collapsed like some predicted, it seems like a total unmitigated failure in any standard economic or business terms. It’s been a success only in terms of providing a bigger mouthpiece to Elon and those he favors, not a typical metric of corporate success.
In that regards, yes what is happening at the federal government mimics Twitter - making the government worse in terms of any usual metric of government performance but making it better in terms of carrying out arbitrary whims of a leader.