Elon Musk tells employees he wants Twitter to be more like WeChat and TikTok

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

If the company wants to hit 1 billion users, it needs to become more like WeChat and TikTok.

According to employees who heard the remarks during his first internal all-hands, Musk said that the app should offer more utility and that people should be entertained and informed. The super app in China that mixes social media with payments, games, and even ride-sharing is called "Wechat".

Musk was late for the virtual meeting because he was late for his phone call. You live on the messaging service in China. We will be a great success if we can reproduce that.

He said that we could hone Twitter in the same way that TikTok has done. He emphasized the importance of being better at what's happening on social media. He thinks that it can be better to inform people of serious issues on the social networking site. Musk said the company should be attributed to a stronger longer lasting civilization where we are better able to understand the nature of reality.

During the call, Musk suggested that people pay to be verified on the micro-blogging site. He suggested the idea of an "irony" label so that someone could see the intent behind the message.

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He said that it would cost more to have a troll army than it would to crack down on bots. After threatening to scrap the deal over the bot issue, the CEO of the company was given extensive data access by the social network.

If Musk succeeds in taking the company private, he will make a lot of changes to the company. He wants the company to be more financially disciplined, but he is not against employees working from home. He made it clear that he would be heavily involved in the product and business after taking it over.

Towards the end of the call, Musk talked about space, the age of the earth, and the possibility of dead civilization on other planets.

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