Originally published at: Musk threatens advertisers as his platform spirals downward | Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
A number of players in the advertising business wrote on Twitter that the move will likely hurt the company’s marketing business."
35 Likes
It’s a thin line between 5D chess and the Mad Magazine Game (“Be the first to lose all your money, Alfred E. Neuman approved.”)
19 Likes
OMG I had that game! (yes, I think that dates me as a ‘70s child huh)
10 Likes
See also: Brewster’s Millions Billions.
12 Likes
23 Likes
It’s just non-stop idiocy with Elno. All the back and forth with the blue check marks - that the legacy verification would be removed, then that it would stay (but be indistinguishable from paid check marks, making it useless), then that they are getting rid of it, then Elno himself paying for a few high-profile users to further muddy the waters. There are enough accounts with paid check marks who clearly aren’t who they claim to be, that it’s obvious it doesn’t verify a f’ing thing - so trying to sell it to people who had check marks for being notable isn’t going to work. Impersonation of now unchecked government accounts happened instantly. Blocking use of the API without paying large sums knocked out government accounts that sent out various types of warnings (e.g. weather warnings). People pointed out that these changes would result in deaths, Elno acts baffled by the idea.
Now he continues his nonsense with advertisers, when he’s spent his entire time as owner, starting from day one, actively alienating them and making Twitter a pretty unappealing platform, except for the sleaziest, scammiest ads. Advertisers were already leaving as a result of every single one of his actions - increasing costs, even a little, is the straw that’s going to break a lot of camels. It really is like he’s trying his darndest to wreck Twitter as quickly and thoroughly as he can manage.
23 Likes
Musk clearly knows nothing about advertising. But anyone spending real money on advertising on twitter isn’t going to blink at $8/month. At that price point, he’s just making people who want to use twitter ads to trolley count towards his paid subscriber metric.
6 Likes
He’s the kid in the classic lemonade stand joke:
How many glasses of lemonade do you think you’re going to sell at $20 each?
I only have to sell one.
12 Likes
I think it is not about the money but about getting brands to display the check mark and give it an air of relevance.
8 Likes
Meanwhile, in another sign that Twitter is a trustworthy place to find information, it has removed the ‘state affiliated’ labels from Russia and China’s propaganda outlets:
18 Likes
$1K/month for companies, not $8/month
8 Likes
Presumably the net worth of Twitter is around negative 40 billion these days. Also there is no way someone’s ego would let anyone else try to rehabilitate Twitter… but I do wonder what kind of value is left in the company.
7 Likes
Especially with all the big ones running away. The small ones need to make up for it, but are they going to want a $1000k/month to open? I don’t think so, except for the fraudulent ones.
11 Likes
Conversely, anyone who is trying to court more advertisers shouldn’t be putting up more barriers for the sake of eight dollars a month.
He’s essentially asking brands to make a visible show of loyalty and tacit endorsement.
13 Likes
“All news is to some degree propaganda,” Musk responded. “Let people decide for themselves.”
8 Likes
At this point, nearly everyone with a checkmark is a bootlicker for the world’s dumbest Nazi-curious billionaire. No one sensible wants that fucking up their brand.
22 Likes
Seems like the big ones have already run away. What I’m seeing is weird niche online sellers, PSAs and scams.
And a lot of them aren’t going to find it profitable enough to lay out $12,000 just to then advertise. Although most of Elno’s changes have made the platform increasingly useful for scammers, so they might be hitting the point where they think they can make a lot more money than other places (thereby turning Twitter into a cesspit of scams that will alienate what’s left of the users).
Except, as pointed out, I don’t think it is $8, but $1000 - unless he’s (yet again) changed his position and is offering individual “verified” accounts to organizations. But that kind of constantly shifting policy doesn’t make the platform appealing for advertisers either.
6 Likes
I helped Elon out by finally disabling my Twitter account today. In 30 days, he can have that megabyte of storage back to use for something else.
Now if we could just convince sites like BoingBoing to stop posting tweets from the twits.
21 Likes
Except that he’s not. If he wanted to kill Twitter, he could just turn it off. He’d look like an asshole if he did, but not an idiot asshole. Turn it off, mismanage it into the ground, it’s all the same to his creditors.
No, he’s trying to make it work, but for the first time in his life he doesn’t have a team of competent people in the background running things and truly wanting to succeed.
7 Likes
