this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
562 points (96.1% liked)

News

23305 readers
3821 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A year after he bought Twitter for $44 billion, Musk thinks the company is now worth $19 billion, a 55 percent drop.

Let's recap what he did to Twitter, I will go first:

  • Changed the original name Twitter to X.
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world 87 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Is anyone else surprised it's even worth that much?

[–] yata@sh.itjust.works 69 points 1 year ago (11 children)

A lot of journalists, politicians and influencers are really reluctant to let it go. I guess those are the ones still keeping it somewhat afloat.

It should be more publicly shamed if you keep being a part of his insanity.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep. I mean in the end it has no product. It's just billboard/ad space, in the world of commerce. Sure, it's a lot of ad space, but ad space in the digital world is also effectively endless, so the percentage still isn't actually that relevant as it can shift in a moment's notice.

Say... if a neonazi buys the platform and brings all his friends with him.

But beyond an office he's not even paying for and so on, Xitter got... nothing. They have no actual product that can be liquidated, no supply chains worth any money, nothing to rent/sell out beyond said adspace. Like many digital companies they rely entirely on hype for all their perceived value.

[–] donuts@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly it's probably not... Estimates aside, who would even want to buy Twitter in its current incarnation?

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It still has a big enough user base and brand recognition that they could put things back on course if they really went for it. The only permanent damage is the brain drain from firing a lot of people that has experience in running twitter.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

The only permanent damage is the brain drain from firing a lot of people that has experience in running twitter.

That's like saying "he suffered no permanent damage except the removal of his spine"

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brand recognition? That's ironic. The Twitter brand had recognition. But you can't say X, you have to say "X, formerly Twitter."

Otherwise you're right, of course, But I can't see it being resurrected.

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, twitter is the brand. The first action of a sane buyer would be to put the bird logo back. 20 billions of its current value comes from the fact that they still own that name.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It was never about the money. Musk is turning a once-valuable information space into a fascist shithole. That was always the goal.

[–] MostlyHarmless@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Yeah, I don't believe that. Turning it into a fascist shit hole might have been a goal, but losing billions doing it isn't.

He's an arrogant fuck who wants everyone to believe he's a genius. Blowing that much money makes him look like a moron.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's obscene that someone can destroy so much value and not go bankrupt. It should not be possible.

[–] alcamtar@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The value only exists on paper. He halved it, he can double it. Happens all the time.

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

he can double it.

You must be buying all the shares you can then!

Narrator: he wasn't

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

he can double it

Can he, though? Or was the worth inflated beforehand?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

Let's put this another way.

That ~25 billion, heavily absorbed by foreign investors, has bought influence on worldwide events/elections and allowed those that previously hated the platform to sabotage it internally, likely to a post-election failure.

Makes you wonder to what degree we have a "useful idiot billionaire" situation, with other interests (countries?) steering the out of control train to their benefit.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Don’t forget him allowing all the banned Neo-Nazis back on! Advertisers just loved that.

[–] aeternum@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The worst thing he did was change the name. I mean, everyone knew twitter. Now you have to qualify it with "Musk's X"

[–] omgarm@feddit.nl 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] PupBiru@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i believe the full name is

“the company formerly known as Twitter aka Birdsite, Xitter pronounced Shitter aka X”

[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

While true, I prefer not to dedicate the time to Musk it'd take to type that out.

...also, the guy deliberately misgenders his kid and gets upset when people mislabel the platform he's burning to the ground, so do with that what you will.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

X (formerly known as Twitter)

[–] timtoon@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

$19 billion (formerly known as $44 billion)

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"X, the social networking website formerly known as Twitter".

Maybe we should call it TSNWFKAT, like Prince did for a bit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] woshang@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And he wants to make it a Everything app, thats terrible

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You forgot quite a significant thing when it comes to Twitter's devalutation. Musk delisted Twitter on Nov 8 as part of his acquisition. The worth of a private company is a bit more difficult to figure out compared to the worth of a public company.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm sure the value will come back. Valuing X at $19B puts the value of the whole alphabet at $500B, which seems low for an established technology which has been in continuous use since before the time of the Roman Empire.

The US GDP is $24 trillion, and all the financial reports supporting that valuation use the Roman Alphabet. The Alphabet is essential to justifying the value of the entire US Economy. I think it's reasonable to value the worth of the alphabet at 8% of GDP, which would give X a fair value of $74B.

See, haters? Elon really is a financial genius. Numbers don't lie.

[–] Throwaway@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually, Alphabet is currently valued at 1.56 trillion dollars.

https://g.co/kgs/Tchkeb

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

Wow X, you suck: Pull your weight! Look at how much the other letters are worth!

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 7 points 1 year ago

Come on. Obviously not all letters in the alphabet are worth the same. X is not that popular even if you take into account its different uses like ':x', 'xoxo' or 'xxx'. Not that many words use x and if one day it collapses and becomes unavailable you can just substitute it with 'ks' like 'seks' or 'meksican'.

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

The meat of those financial reports rely on Arabic Numerals and everything is OK over there, right?

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the value he think it's worth, not what someone would actually pay for it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] elbucho@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I don't think it was even worth half of what he paid for it when he paid for it. Musk is a complete god damned moron. I'd be surprised if the company was even worth $19 billion when he bought it for $44 bn. And there's no way in fuck that it's worth $19 bn now. Absolute dogshit assessment. Not that I'm surprised, mind. It's Musk's assessment, after all.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I just read the news somewhere that they introduced two payment tiers for monthly subscription. Good luck keeping users. There's not a single social network that charges people use. No matter how cheap.

[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He could have just donated all of that to the Signal foundation if he wanted to protect free speech.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[–] xc2215x@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Many of his decisions have not been good.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

all because he was dying to make that joke with the sink

[–] Aermis@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What was the joke? I mean I saw him walk in with a sink but what what was the joke because that was random af

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›