4 ms·

Is it that simple? I doubt it. The man owns Starlink. Imagine that for a second. Imagine owning a social network that is a first class citizen to a global sate

Is it that simple? I doubt it. The man owns Starlink. Imagine that for a second. Imagine owning a social network that is a first class citizen to a global satellite network that no government can ever censor. He could be pivoting the company into something astonishing.

soulofmischief 4y ago
Let's build a better one that people control.
- jesuscript 4y ago
  That’s the whole point, no one is supposed to control it. Ugh, I sound silly, but here’s the Batman quote: Not the hero we want, but the hero we deserve. Yes, reverse the bans and connect this shit to Starlink and tell governments “I got no clue where those damn satellites are, can’t help ya, Trump’s tweeting from somewhere in Somalia with a VPN”.
  - nwiswell 4y ago
    Wow, yeah, what a utopian vision you paint. Wait hold on a minute isn't there already some kind of amendment that makes this irrelevant? Although since the Saudis own such a massive chunk of this newly private company I guess the US government is no longer the only one that Elon needs to concern himself with.
jeffbee 4y ago
The man bought the company using Saudi cash. It is much, much more likely that he's going the other way on censorship. Of course, astonishment might still be appropriate.
- type-r 4y ago
  Didn't realize the Saudis were such big shareholders -- apparently now second only to Musk in total percentage of ownership https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/murphy-saudi-musk-twitter-cfius/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/murphy-saudi-musk-twitte...)
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    Second only to Musk, with 4% ownership (based on their stake, and total deal size).
  - candiodari 4y ago
    Aren't the Saudi royal family the worst investors of all time?
    - HWR_14 4y ago
      Why? I have no information either way, but I'm curious what their reputation is.
    - Godel_unicode 4y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal
- shuckles 4y ago
  Not to mention installing a social networking app doesn’t somehow make your iPhone capable of satcom.
RC_ITR 4y ago
>Imagine owning a social network that is a first class citizen to a global satellite network I guess the zeitgeist really did decide Net Neutrality is a bad thing. Like imagine a telecom owning a social network? Ok I imagined it and I hate it.
- jsjohnst 4y ago
  > Like imagine a telecom owning a social network? You mean like Verizon and Tumblr? ;)
  - Godel_unicode 4y ago
    In order for it to be a social network, doesn’t it need to have users?
    - jsjohnst 4y ago
      The months leading up to Verizon's fateful decision in December 2018, they were in the range of over 500 million MAU. Within a couple months after, the number was half that.
      - BeefWellington 4y ago
        Failing to learn the lessons of Betamax continue to haunt decisionmakers, essentially. The takeaway should likely be: Twitter will be fine if people can still post their porn there.
        RC_ITR 4y ago
        Wasn't the downfall of Betamax that the tapes were limited to 1 hour (which Sony thought was fine since that was the unit of commercial videotapes) and most people wanted to record sporting events that took longer than an hour?
  - etchalon 4y ago
    That didn't really work out.
dmak 4y ago
That would be insanely impressive
Godel_unicode 4y ago
A censorship-resistant communication system and a Starlink sized dish are a good recipe for people going to jail in countries where Twitter is actually censored. Governments that engage in active censorship also frequently are not the warm-and-fuzzy entities that westerners are used to when they think of governments.
SkipperCat 4y ago
Sounds great, but who pays for it? The purchase of Twitter was done via loans and now, interest rates are not zero. Musk will have to service considerable debt to keep Twitter alive. If he can pull this off, he'll go down in history as one of the must successful business person of his generation. If he fails, he will still has Paypal, SpaceX and Tesla to brag about.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  if it fails it cements him as a loose canon who is now past him prime
  - SkipperCat 4y ago
    It will cast a narrative of Musk as someone who is successful only in a low interest rate economy. When interest rates tighten, companies have to show they can deliver more than Treasury notes. That was really easy when the interest rates were close to zero.
- adam_arthur 4y ago
  Presumably Twitter will be immediately profitable after these layoffs. Enough to cover the interest on the debt? Not sure
  - SkipperCat 4y ago
    That maybe takes care of debt servicing, but what about growth? Business exist to grow shareholder value (public or private). Elon needs to solve that puzzle.
    - adam_arthur 4y ago
      If 50m people pay the 8 dollar a month fee that’s another decent chunk of change. Will be interesting to see how all these rapid fire changes play out over the next few years. I’m not sure the path to growth for Twitter depends on a lot of net new development. More so better monetization of the existing platform, which can largely be done via small tweaks here and there

soulofmischief 4y ago

Let's build a better one that people control.

jesuscript 4y ago
That’s the whole point, no one is supposed to control it. Ugh, I sound silly, but here’s the Batman quote: Not the hero we want, but the hero we deserve. Yes, reverse the bans and connect this shit to Starlink and tell governments “I got no clue where those damn satellites are, can’t help ya, Trump’s tweeting from somewhere in Somalia with a VPN”.
- nwiswell 4y ago
  Wow, yeah, what a utopian vision you paint. Wait hold on a minute isn't there already some kind of amendment that makes this irrelevant? Although since the Saudis own such a massive chunk of this newly private company I guess the US government is no longer the only one that Elon needs to concern himself with.

jeffbee 4y ago

The man bought the company using Saudi cash. It is much, much more likely that he's going the other way on censorship. Of course, astonishment might still be appropriate.

type-r 4y ago
Didn't realize the Saudis were such big shareholders -- apparently now second only to Musk in total percentage of ownership https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/murphy-saudi-musk-twitter-cfius/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/murphy-saudi-musk-twitte...)
- Aeolun 4y ago
  Second only to Musk, with 4% ownership (based on their stake, and total deal size).
- candiodari 4y ago
  Aren't the Saudi royal family the worst investors of all time?
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    Why? I have no information either way, but I'm curious what their reputation is.
  - Godel_unicode 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal
shuckles 4y ago
Not to mention installing a social networking app doesn’t somehow make your iPhone capable of satcom.

RC_ITR 4y ago

>Imagine owning a social network that is a first class citizen to a global satellite network I guess the zeitgeist really did decide Net Neutrality is a bad thing. Like imagine a telecom owning a social network? Ok I imagined it and I hate it.

jsjohnst 4y ago
> Like imagine a telecom owning a social network? You mean like Verizon and Tumblr? ;)
- Godel_unicode 4y ago
  In order for it to be a social network, doesn’t it need to have users?
  - jsjohnst 4y ago
    The months leading up to Verizon's fateful decision in December 2018, they were in the range of over 500 million MAU. Within a couple months after, the number was half that.
    - BeefWellington 4y ago
      Failing to learn the lessons of Betamax continue to haunt decisionmakers, essentially. The takeaway should likely be: Twitter will be fine if people can still post their porn there.
      - RC_ITR 4y ago
        Wasn't the downfall of Betamax that the tapes were limited to 1 hour (which Sony thought was fine since that was the unit of commercial videotapes) and most people wanted to record sporting events that took longer than an hour?
- etchalon 4y ago
  That didn't really work out.

dmak 4y ago

That would be insanely impressive

Godel_unicode 4y ago

A censorship-resistant communication system and a Starlink sized dish are a good recipe for people going to jail in countries where Twitter is actually censored. Governments that engage in active censorship also frequently are not the warm-and-fuzzy entities that westerners are used to when they think of governments.

SkipperCat 4y ago

Sounds great, but who pays for it? The purchase of Twitter was done via loans and now, interest rates are not zero. Musk will have to service considerable debt to keep Twitter alive. If he can pull this off, he'll go down in history as one of the must successful business person of his generation. If he fails, he will still has Paypal, SpaceX and Tesla to brag about.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
if it fails it cements him as a loose canon who is now past him prime
- SkipperCat 4y ago
  It will cast a narrative of Musk as someone who is successful only in a low interest rate economy. When interest rates tighten, companies have to show they can deliver more than Treasury notes. That was really easy when the interest rates were close to zero.
adam_arthur 4y ago
Presumably Twitter will be immediately profitable after these layoffs. Enough to cover the interest on the debt? Not sure
- SkipperCat 4y ago
  That maybe takes care of debt servicing, but what about growth? Business exist to grow shareholder value (public or private). Elon needs to solve that puzzle.
  - adam_arthur 4y ago
    If 50m people pay the 8 dollar a month fee that’s another decent chunk of change. Will be interesting to see how all these rapid fire changes play out over the next few years. I’m not sure the path to growth for Twitter depends on a lot of net new development. More so better monetization of the existing platform, which can largely be done via small tweaks here and there