This week will be the last one this year. I will come back with something delightful for you that is not just about Musk shenanigans, but we will have occasional chats.
Rich people believe that they are basically good, that they deserve their money, and that anything that threatens ideas is bad. The other things are pretty flexible.
If Greg Abbott told Musk to jump, Musk would say, "How high?"
I am going to talk about politics and technology with you. I've heard of some suggestions that Musk has been involved in some sort of scandal. I don't think he has political beliefs, only personal interests, so I'm a bit skeptical about that.
If Texas governor Greg Abbott told Musk to jump, Musk would say, "How high?" Between the state and local tax breaks Musk saved about $65 million. The company got 15 million dollars from Texas in the last year.
There is nothing strange about Texas laws about content moderation or the threats that have been made against the company.
The future of Musk's companies is dependent on keeping Texas officials happy. If we woke up tomorrow and Democrats ran Texas, Musk's tone would suddenly change.
Many advertisers don't want to be seen next to political material.
There are more than one thing going on. The other is that Musk's Republican allies have become interested in Apple's App Store after Musk complained about it. The people Musk thinks of as his enemies are the left- leaning journalists. Right-wingers have been aware of this since the days of talk radio.
What Musk is doing makes sense, except that it is scaring advertisers even more.
Advertisers don't like to be next to political content on ad supported platforms. They want the maximum number of people to buy their products and engaging in the culture wars can mean a decline in sales. Advertising was worth 89 percent of revenue last year, making Musk's political turn a potential threat. According to the Financial Times, weekly bookings in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have dropped by almost half, and that Musk is calling CEOs to berate them for not placing ads on the social networking site. Musk threw a temper tantrum about advertising at Apple. One of the top advertisers was Apple.
Last year, the social networking site had $5 billion in revenue. I am going to do some math that is oversimplified. To replace the $4.5 billion that came from ads, Musk needs to sell more than half a billion subscriptions. There are more than 47 million accounts that need to pay $8 a month to get a blue checkmark re-up. There are more than 200 million daily active users of the social networking site. It is possible to get 47 million of them to pay, but it is hard to sell to the left-wing people that Musk is annoying.
Musk seems to be making it harder to pull the company out of its current state.
I didn't include what you noticed. There is a best-case scenario in which no one will subscribe to the app stores. You may remember that those stores took a 30 percent cut of sales. I don't know what proportion of users will subscribe through those channels, but 47 million accounts buying a year of blue checks is the absolute floor for replacing advertisers completely. Musk needs more subscribers.
I don't know. Over a month into Musk's time as chief twit, we are a hair. Musk seems to be making it harder to pull the company out of its current state. I wonder if he is just high on his own supply of sweet, sweet attention while the company burns, because the more he says about politics, the more I wonder if he is just high on his own supply of sweet, sweet attention.
Who is aware? If Musk moved the headquarters, Texas might give him a tax break. If I were a Texan, I would find my wallet and keep it with me.
Money is Musk's main interest. He sold his first computer program when he was 12 and his brother tried to open his own arcade when he was 16. He sold beer at parties in college.
Musk has his own interests in mind. One of those interests is being seen as a visionary who will change the world. The Neuralink human trials are supposed to be about that. Musk says he is planning at least 100 missions, including the first spacewalk and commercial trip around the moon. The spaceship has not yet left the launch site. mass production of the Cybertruck is expected to begin by the end of the year. Whatever is going on with the social networking site.
I don't think those things will happen next year because Musk is terrible at deadlines. He might think they are unimportant, or he might think they are realistic. If the conversation isn't about money, you're having the wrong conversation with Musk. The deadlines don't matter because Musk blowing his deadlines doesn't seem to have a financial impact
Even though Musk is the world's richest man, he is just a small part of the technology of money. It shapes the software, hardware, and apps you use every day. It is a whole world to visit.
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