I don't understand X's mission anymore. When it was still Twitter, it was clear: fast news (albeit liberal) and celebrity content, which I found more interesting overall. Now it seems to be chasing YouTube and TikTok and other popular SM sites. The algo heavily favors entertainment and repetitive content, kind of: "Oh, you like fast cars? Let me show you 10000 more!" I used to get solid traffic and leads when it was still Twitter, but that has completely dried up. Many users also report that paid ads deliver mostly bot impressions. Overall, it feels like it's no longer good for news, traffic or business. I honestly can't figure out what Musk is trying to build. Are any of you still active on X? What's your take?
I have a twitter/x account, but rarely go on it, so I have no idea what the actual plan is; however, every time I hear that Musk is crazy, doing stupid things, sure to fail, etc., he comes out smelling like a rose and ends up even wealthier than before. He certainly can play around with X; my understanding is that he cut thousands of Twitter developers when he first bought it and has a team of about 100 now, so costs are way down. Anyway, don't bet against him.
I'd never call what he does stupid. Remember when many thought paying $44 billion for Twitter was the dumbest thing he'd ever done? Now it's worth far more than that, mostly thanks to AI. To me Musk operates on this principle (with almost all his products): Create a great product that people want → Offer it mostly free → Get users addicted (1-2 years) → Limit free usage and introduce premium pricing → Make billions. I see this pattern clearly with Grok, for instance. It's an excellent tool that has definitely hooked me, but it's becoming increasingly limited for free use. I wouldn't be surprised if let's say, in a year's time, it becomes a paid only option.
The only thing that Musk does not seem to do well is understand politics. While he had good intentions, his involvement with DOGE and campaigning for MAGA really hurt Tesla sales. He should have read my thread on DP about how stupid it is for businesses to get involved with politics.
After re-reading my post, I realized that it was a little vague. Many businesses are correct to get involved with politics (lobbying, donating to campaigns, etc.) if it makes sense for their business. But the smart ones do it quietly so as to not to risk alienating half of their customers.
Nah, I believe companies should never go there. There are far too many examples, on both sides of the aisle, that show the same pattern: the moment you try to push a political agenda through your business, you lose. Sometimes immediately, but especially over the long term. Customers may forgive and forget, but the bad aftertaste stays indefinitely. Politics is for sleazy people anyway, why would any respectable business want to be part of that?
There are businesses that are either regulated by or sell directly to the government. To compete effectively, they may have to engage in lobbying, donating to influential Congresspeople, etc. Those activities tend to be non-partisan and would not cause issues with public perception as long as they were performed legally and ethically.