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Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

  • New Twitter alternative, Threads, could eclipse rivals like Mastodon and Blue Sky

    New Twitter alternative, Threads, could eclipse rivals like Mastodon and Blue Sky

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    As Twitter faces mounting backlash over its latest policy changes, alternative apps like Blue Sky and Mastodon are standing by to welcome disgruntled users of the Elon Musk-owned blogging platform. Yet while these fledgling communities for now remain bit players on the social scene, Meta’s new Threads app may finally offer a real competitor to Twitter, experts say.

    Threads, which launched on Wednesday, is integrated with Instagram and is backed by Meta’s vast technical and financial resources, potent advantages that have helped it quickly acquire tens of millions of users. But whether the platform can retain those users will depend on its ability to roll out features that appeal to Twitter defectors and replicate the app’s pre-Musk culture.


    Twitter limits daily posts users can view

    03:52

    A matter of timing

    Meta launched Threads ahead of schedule on July 5, shortly after Twitter sparked an uproar by placing daily limits on the number of posts its account holders could access. The company’s speedy roll out meant that Threads debuted without popular features like personalized feeds, making it tough to predict the long-term success of the app, David Karpf, an associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, told CBS MoneyWatch.

    “There’s still a lot we don’t know about the app because they rolled out kind of half-finished,” Karpf said. “Twitter was just looking so incredibly vulnerable that if Meta was going to build a replacement [platform], now was the time to roll it out.”

    The timing of the launch has been a boon for Threads, however. Users’ frustrations with Twitter spurred immediate interest in the app, bringing its signups to more than 70 million within days of its debut. That’s more than current user numbers of Mastodon and Blue Sky combined. 


    Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says

    05:29

    Cheaper than the Metaverse

    The rapidly growing user base could soon bring in much-needed advertising revenue for Threads, allowing the app to fund its own development. However, the service debuted without ads, and until it introduces advertising, Meta can easily finance its operations. 

    “If Mark Zuckerberg can spend $10 to $15 billion a year trying to build the metaverse, he can definitely spend a lot less than that trying to kill Twitter,” Karpf said. 

    That access to billions of dollars gives Threads an advantage over other Twitter competitors, and even an edge on Twitter itself.

    “With interest rates being so high, it’s gonna be harder for [Twitter and Twitter copycats] to get cheap money to develop features to be competitive,” said Joseph Panzarella, a clinical assistant professor of digital marketing and media at Yeshiva University. “Meta is willing, and in a position, to put money behind this.”

    Integration with Instagram

    Threads’ integration with Instagram is another thing that sets it apart from early Twitter copycats. Instagram has roughly four times the number of users as Twitter, data from social media management platform Sprout Social shows. That means Threads needs to attract just a portion of Instagram’s existing users to match Twitter’s size, Panzarella noted.

    To create a Threads account, Instagram users simply link their new Meta profile to their existing Instagram accounts. That allows users to automatically transfer their Instagram followers to Threads, which could help boost the app’s adoption tremendously, Panzarella said.

    “Threads, being part of this suite of options Meta offers, can attract that critical mass [of users],” he said. “With a feature that allows you to take followers with you … you don’t have to be within a totally gated community.”


    Threads, Twitter and the saturation of social media

    04:15

    Privacy concerns

    However, making users link their accounts to their Instagram profiles could spur privacy concerns. It could also dissuade pseudonymous Twitter users, who form a large part of active communities like Crypto Twitter, from embracing Threads. Journalists who may not want to link their private Instagram account to their professional Threads account may also hesitate to join the app through Instagram. 

    Threads’ reliance on its Instagram integration signals that the app hasn’t quite nailed down the culture that made Twitter so popular before its acquisition last year by Musk, according to Karpf. 

    “[Threads] doesn’t have the culture right yet,” Karpf said. “Twitter, before the chaos, was for journalists and for some cultures that were just a little too ‘online’… It filled a particular niche that Instagram doesn’t fill.”

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  • Twitter’s desktop app sees surge in outages as Meta’s Threads takes off

    Twitter’s desktop app sees surge in outages as Meta’s Threads takes off

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    In this photo illustration, Threads logo seen displayed on a smartphone with the Twitter profile of Elon Musk in the background. Elon Musk is the current owner of Twitter. Meta will release a social media app called “Threads”, which will be a rival to Twitter. “Threads” is Instagram’s text-based conversation app.

    Mateusz Slodkowski | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Twitter is experiencing a wave of outages just as Meta’s brand-new rival Threads service is racking up tens of millions of sign-ups.

    Many Twitter users have reported outages over the past 24 hours, with problems seemingly skyrocketing around 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, according to data from the Downdetector website. Downdetector accumulates its data from users who spot glitches and report them to the service.

    About 70% of the Twitter outages appear related to its desktop service, Downdetector noted. Only 13% were tied to the mobile app.

    Twitter’s TweetDeck service, which helps users manage multiple Twitter conversations, has also suffered downtime in recent days after the company announced that only verified users will be able to access it. However, the primary problem appears to be with the core Twitter app, the data shows.

    Meanwhile, the Threads app has recorded 70 million sign-ups just a day after its official release as of Friday morning, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post.

    “Way beyond our expectations,” Zuckerberg said about the app’s immediate popularity.

    On Thursday, Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who succeeded owner Elon Musk at the helm a month ago, tweeted that the company was “often imitated,” a clear reference to Threads.

    Twitter didn’t provide a comment for this story.

    Watch: There’s more room in Meta’s multiple for upside.

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  • Meta’s Twitter rival Threads explodes to 70 million signups one day after launch

    Meta’s Twitter rival Threads explodes to 70 million signups one day after launch

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    In this photo illustration, the Threads logo by META is displayed on a smartphone with Twitter logo in the background. Threads is the new social network from Meta Platforms which was launched on the 5th of July 2023. 

    Omar Marques | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Meta’s new Twitter competitor Threads has exploded in growth in its first full day since its public debut Wednesday night, fueled by Instagram’s already massive userbase. The text-based social media platform already has 70 million sign-ups, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.

    As of Thursday afternoon, The Verge reported that users had already posted more than 95 million posts and 190 million likes, based on internal company data it had viewed.

    Meta did not provide updated engagement metrics for Threads but directed CNBC to Zuckerberg’s announcement on sign-up numbers.

    The booming growth is helped along by the fact that Threads is tied to an existing social network, Meta’s Instagram. Users can sign up with their existing handles on Instagram and are able to retain some of their following as others sign up for the app.

    “Meta only needs 1 in 4 Instagram users to use Threads monthly for it to be as big as Twitter,” Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, said in a statement. Twitter reported nearly 238 million monetizable daily active users in its last quarterly earnings report as public company last summer.

    The app still has plenty of room to grow, having not yet launched in Europe, where Instagram’s chief said there is still some regulatory complexity to navigate.

    Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have already shown some concern about Threads, as his longtime lawyer Alex Spiro wrote a letter to Meta accusing the company of “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets.

    “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee,” Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, wrote on Threads in response to the letter. “That’s just not a thing.”

    Still, growth alone won’t be enough to make Threads an alternative to Twitter that withstands the test of time. The app must also show that it can keep users engaged and coming back.

    While Twitter is known for being heavily used by journalists, politicians and academics and is a place where news often breaks, Meta’s Threads could have a much broader audience and focus due to its tie-in to Instagram, which has different use cases as a visual-based platform. Plus, Meta has taken steps to de-emphasize political content on Facebook, a policy which, if carried over to Threads, would set it apart from Twitter.

    “News hounds and avid Twitter loyalists aren’t likely to defect to Twitter, and Meta will need to keep Threads interesting to maintain the momentum once the novelty wears off,” Enberg wrote. “It’s also not a given that people will use Threads to keep up with news and world events like they do on Twitter, and the culture will be different. But that could work in Meta’s benefit: Even the most engaged Twitter users are fed up with the constant chaos and ad hoc changes, and Threads could offer a nice reprieve.”

    Even so, many politicians have already signed up for the service. Axios reported that as of Thursday evening, more than a quarter of Congress’ 535 members across both chambers had created accounts, as well as half a dozen Republican presidential candidates and top White House aides.

    Many advertisers who are used to working with Meta are also likely to welcome an alternative to Twitter, especially if they view it as more brand safe. The company has said Instagram’s community guidelines will also apply to Threads.

    WATCH: Meta’s Threads is not Twitter killer, but will pose real threat to Twitter’s growth: Analyst

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  • Zuckerberg claims tens of millions of Threads signups within days of launch

    Zuckerberg claims tens of millions of Threads signups within days of launch

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    More than 70 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first two days of its launch, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday.

    The number is likely to grow quickly as more Instagram users and social media fans open accounts on Threads. The app is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of social media’s most iconic companies, despite its epic struggles.

    “70 million sign ups on Threads as of this morning. Way beyond our expectations.” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads at noon Eastern time on Friday.

    The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and won’t have ads for now. 

    Threads had been slated for release at 10 a.m. Eastern Time Thursday but the company on Wednesday pushed forward its release to that evening.

    threads-homepage.jpg
    The Threads homepage as it launched on July 5, 2023.

    threads.net


    Celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist, as well as CBS News, the parent of CBS MoneyWatch, joined the service, with many racking up hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of users. Zuckerberg had 2.2 million followers as of Friday afternoon.

    Zuckerberg’s first Threads posts

    Zuckerberg spent the first few hours of the platform’s launch replying to new users.

    “One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.

    “Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another.

    Zuckerberg also offered a shot across the bow at Musk — they’re known to be bitter rivals and have even offered to meet each other in a fighting cage to wrestle it out.

    In his first tweet in over a decade, Zuckerberg posted a Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in an apparent reference to the similarity of the two platforms.

    Back on Threads, he wrote: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Twitter has said it has more than 200 million daily users.

    Twitter killer?

    In the days leading up to Threads’ release, some people on social media referred to it as a “Twitter killer” because of the expectation that some users of the rival platform will jump ship in favor of the new app. Some Twitter users have expressed frustration with recent changes instituted by Musk.

    Twitter has also seen a spike in hate speech since Musk bought the platform last year.

    Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

    Zuckerberg is widely understood to be taking advantage of Musk’s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies and politicians.

    Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
    Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Elon Musk. 

    MANDEL NGAN,ALAIN JOCARD / AFP via Getty Images


    “It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic financial analyst Brian Wieser said on Substack.

    Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.”

    “Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she added. 

    Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told users that Threads was intended to build “an open and friendly platform for conversations.” 

    “The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,” he said.

    Twitter changes under Musk  

    Under Musk, Twitter has seen content moderation reduced to a minimum, with glitches and rash decisions scaring away celebrities and major advertisers.

    Musk hired advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to steady the ship, but she has not been spared his whimsy.

    The Tesla tycoon said last week that he was limiting access to Twitter to ward off AI companies from “scraping” the site to train their technology. Musk then angered Twitter’s most devoted aficionados by declaring that access to its TweetDeck product — which enables users to view multiple accounts and Twitter lists at once — would be for paying customers only.

    Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in Europe, and despite Instagram’s massive user base, they could slow the site’s development. 

    The company is criticized mainly for its handling of personal data — the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.

    Mosseri said he regretted that the EU launch was delayed, but if Meta had waited for regulatory clarity from Brussels, Threads would remain “many, many, many, months away.”

    “I was worried that our window would close, because timing is important,” he added to Platformer, a tech news site.

    Data issues

    According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.

    One rule restricts platforms from transferring personal data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.

    Meta was called out for doing just that after it bought the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure that the company doesn’t do so illegally with Threads. 

    Globally, the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets, with many users jokingly suggesting users would be returning to Twitter. 

    “10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a video of a man sprinting. 

    Another shared an image of Homer Simpson running back and forth between the Twitter and Threads logos. 

    By midday local time Thursday, Threads was the top trending topic on Japan Twitter, but many users expressed concerns over data privacy. 

    “Threads is run by Meta, isn’t it? It will definitely leak your real name or the game you are playing, or put you in the list of your workplace company friends,” wrote one user. 

    Another said: “Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information. I also have the impression that this is a company hated by EU, so I’m reluctant.” 

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  • Twitter vs. Threads: The Musk-Zuck Cage Match That’s Actually Happening

    Twitter vs. Threads: The Musk-Zuck Cage Match That’s Actually Happening

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    Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition last fall ushered in a slew of alternative platforms, from Post. to Mastodon to Bluesky Social, a venture involving Twitter’s cofounder Jack Dorsey himself. None of these sites seem to have really caught on, until now (well, maybe). Meta’s Threads, which launched Wednesday and was reportedly pitched internally as essentially a saner Twitter, is already being called a possible “Twitter killer.” An offshoot of Instagram, Meta’s text-based app became the most rapidly downloaded app ever shortly after its launch, per The New York Times. As of Friday morning, they were up to 70 million sign-ups, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    Needless to say, Twitter is not happy; shortly after seeing its first legitimate challenger, Musk’s company fired off a legal warning. “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro wrote in a Wednesday letter to Zuckerberg, first reported by Semafor. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.” Accusing Meta of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property,” Spiro went on to allege that Meta had hired ex-Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.” Meta has soundly denied the allegations. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee—that’s just not a thing,” Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, told Semafor.

    Meanwhile, tensions between Musk and Zuckerberg are only growing (and yes, this is where we get to the part about these two tech executives threatening to physically fight each other). Musk has publicly accused Meta of playing dirty. “Competition is fine, cheating is not,” he tweeted Thursday. The Twitter owner has previously attacked Zuckerberg’s business record, privately disparaging the fact that his rival got rich off software that Musk apparently finds unremarkable, according to The Wall Street Journal. More recently, Musk blamed Instagram—Meta’s hottest product in the US—for causing mental health problems. News of Meta’s Threads last month was the final straw: Musk responded by challenging Zuckerberg to a literal cage match, and Zuckerberg, a Brazilian jiujitsu student, agreed. (At this point, it seems unlikely that a match will happen. Even Musk’s mother stepped in to stop her son from fighting. Moreover, Musk tweeted Monday that he needs “a lot more training.”)

    As for Threads, the microblogging platform, to pose a real and sustained threat to Twitter’s ubiquity, Threads must attract the same politicians, celebrities, and media figures and sustain activity on the site. So far, it has managed to do just that. More than a quarter of all House and Senate members joined the platform within its first two days of existence, per an Axios report. While Democrats are far more inclined to join a Twitter rival, given Musk’s right-wing makeover at Twitter, notable Republicans have also ventured onto Threads, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House majority leader Steve Scalise, former vice president Mike Pence, as well as several other GOP presidential candidates (no, not Donald Trump). Likewise, a few top aides at Joe Biden’s White House have joined Threads.

    This mixture of Republicans and Democrats could make Threads the first Twitter challenger that can reasonably be viewed as nonpartisan, a key component of Twitter’s pre-Musk success, while rivals, including Post. and Mastodon for people on the left and Truth Social and Gettr for people on the right, were adopted or marketed along partisan lines.

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    Caleb Ecarma

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  • Elon Musk Sues Mark Zuckerberg For Being Better At Profiting Off Someone Else’s Idea

    Elon Musk Sues Mark Zuckerberg For Being Better At Profiting Off Someone Else’s Idea

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    SAN FRANCISCO—Claiming the Meta CEO violated his intellectual property rights, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg Friday for being better at profiting off someone else’s idea. “He clearly violated the law by copying my idea of taking another person’s idea, but making way more money off it than I would have,” said Musk, adding that Zuckerberg misappropriated his trade secret to take full credit for someone else’s creation, but turned it into a money-making venture instead of a complete failure. “If you want to take someone else’s idea, that’s fine, but to not immediately lose billions of dollars after doing so infringes on my rights as a tech entrepreneur who is bad at making business decisions and has never had a single original idea in his entire life. I demand that Zuckerberg immediately cease and desist from doing what I do and being way more successful at it.” At press time, Musk was searching for another company with ideas he could buy to use in court against Zuckerberg before inevitably running it into the ground.

    This Elon Musk Deepfake Cannot Be Real

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  • Meta’s new Twitter rival app Threads gets tens of millions of sign-ups in its first day

    Meta’s new Twitter rival app Threads gets tens of millions of sign-ups in its first day

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    Tens of millions of people have quickly signed up to Meta’s new app, Threads, as it aims to compete with Twitter — a sign that users are looking for an alternative to the social media platform that has undergone a series of unpopular changes since Elon Musk bought it.

    Meta Platforms’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that 30 million people had registered for the app, including 10 million in the first seven hours of its launch Wednesday in the U.S. and over 100 other countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan.

    Threads is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that the company says provides “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

    Instagram users can log in with their existing usernames and follow the same accounts on the new app, giving Threads users a ready-made audience and an edge over other Twitter challengers like Bluesky and Mastodon.

    “I think I’ll just see — I’ll keep Twitter for a while and then if everyone moves over there (to Threads), then I’ll probably move,” said Javi de Andreas, a 24-year-old researcher in London.

    He added that Instagram “feels like a bit more reliable just in terms of nothing really changes.”

    There was plenty of excitement among Threads users about the opportunity to make a fresh start on a new social media app, giving Threads a “first day of school” vibe.

    Early adopters included celebrities like chef Gordon Ramsay, pop star Shakira and actor Jack Black as well as Airbnb, Guinness World Records, Netflix, Vogue magazine and other media outlets.

    There were also glitches, annoyance about the lack of a chronological feed and gripes about missing features — raising the question of whether the initial burst of interest would lead to sustained growth that could pose a meaningful challenge to Twitter.

    “The euphoria around a new service and this initial explosion will probably settle down,” said Paolo Pescatore, a technology analyst at PP Foresight. “But it is apparent that this alternative is here to stay and will prove to be a worthy rival given all of Twitter’s woes.”

    Teething problems for Threads include Zuckerberg’s posts — or Threads as they’re dubbed — not loading in several countries. But his replies to other users did appear.

    Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri acknowledged the early issues.

    “The real test is not if we can build up a lot of hype, but if you all find enough value in the app to keep using it ove time,” Mosseri posted in a thread.

    “And there are tons of basics that are missing: search, hashtags, a following feed” and direct messaging, he said. “We’re on it,” but ”it’ll take time.”

    Threads does have buttons to like, repost, reply to or quote a thread, and users see the number of likes and replies a post has received. Posts are limited to 500 characters, which is more than Twitter’s 280-character threshold for most users, and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.

    Some questioned whether it made sense to seek to combine Twitter and Instagram users, which are two distinct online groups. Twitter is tailored for quick and short updates, while Instagram is best for visually creative posts.

    An Argentine archbishop chosen by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy concedes he made mistakes in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors.

    Allisen Corpuz poses with the winner's trophy after the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, Sunday, July 9, 2023, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

    Allisen Corpuz picked the right time and the right place for her first big win. She won the first U.S.

    FILE - PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan speaks during a news conference before the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, June 22, 2022, in Cromwell, Conn. Monahan is returning to work just over a month after he stepped away for a “medical situation” during a tumultuous time of working out a surprise commercial agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

    The Washington Post is reporting former AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson has resigned from the PGA Tour policy board.

    FILE - Roy Herron hugs and shakes hands with supporters with help from Wesley Warrilow, right, after being defeated by Stephen Fincher for U.S. representative, Nov. 2, 2010, at the Elks Lodge in Dresden, Tenn. Herron, a longtime Tennessee state lawmaker and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, died Sunday, July 9, 2023, from injuries sustained in a jet ski accident. He was 69 years old. (Katie Brake/The Jackson Sun via AP, File)

    Roy Herron, a longtime Tennessee state lawmaker and former chairperson of the state Democratic Party, has died from injuries sustained in a jet ski accident.

    “Some people will want to keep it separate from Instagram for numerous and very good reasons,” Pescatore said. “This is something that Meta might have to address, which could halt its progress.”

    Meta’s new offering also has raised data privacy concerns. The company has held off on rolling it out in the European Union, citing regulatory uncertainty.

    The 27-nation EU has strict data privacy rules and is set to start enforcing a new set of digital rules aimed at clamping down on Big Tech companies and limiting what they can do with users’ personal information.

    Threads could collect a wide range of personal information, including health, financial, contacts, browsing and search history, location data, purchases and “sensitive info,” according to its data privacy disclosure on the App Store.

    Threads poses a fresh headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion. Analysts said combining Twitter-style features with Instagram’s look and feel would drive user engagement.

    Musk has made a series of changes that have triggered backlash, the latest being daily limits on the number of tweets people can view to try to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.

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  • 7/6: Prime Time with John Dickerson

    7/6: Prime Time with John Dickerson

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    7/6: Prime Time with John Dickerson – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    John Dickerson reports on sweltering temperatures across the country, a new study on “forever chemicals” in tap water, and the competition between Twitter and Threads.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • Instagram Threads: More Boring Than Twitter, Only Slightly Better Than Instagram Itself

    Instagram Threads: More Boring Than Twitter, Only Slightly Better Than Instagram Itself

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    And lo! On the least useful day of the least useful week of summer, the foretold Twitter replacement emerged at last. Potentially. Threads, billed as “an Instagram app” by parent company Meta, née Facebook, launched on Wednesday and has already racked up some 30 million signups, according to Mark Zuckerberg. That sound you hear? It’s a nation of social media managers weeping, their fresh beach tans fading with every second of exposure to the fluorescing home screen of yet another app.

    So, is this the one? Let’s first consider how things are going on Twitter, where over the weekend, the platform’s latest death rattle came in the form of temporary rate limits. Shortly after, the platform announced plans to charge for Tweetdeck, essentially a tax on its most ardent (and by definition, deranged) users. So maybe the time really is nigh. Instagram’s obvious leg up over other “Twitter killer” contenders like Substack Notes and Bluesky is the supposedly built-in network that awaits you on Threads: With one tap, you can send a mass request to follow everyone whom you already follow on Instagram. Less seamlessly, you then have to individually approve everyone requesting to follow you. (In 2023, the height of our technological aspiration apparently requires one to spend the better part of a dazzling summer day pressing “confirm” 500 times in a row.)

    The Threads interface is extremely Twitter-like, of course. You can “heart” a post, reply, and repost it not only to your Threads feed (shall we call it the Spool?) but also to your Instagram Feed and your Instagram Stories and, hilariously, on Twitter itself. (Because life is not fair, I believe, sadly, that this is the only form of direct conflict we will see Zuckie and Muskie actually engage in; two billionaires slap-fighting by proxy of app features is proof that our sci-fi reality will be gobs more boring than we can begin to imagine). During my cursory spin on Threads, the only thing that surprised me was the clunkiness of the layout, as if Instagram—birthplace of capital-A aesthetics—couldn’t figure out how to work with so much white space. When I flipped back to Twitter, it felt like looking at an Old Master painting by comparison.

    On Threads, as in all of these embryonic new platform wannabes, you’re more likely to notice what isn’t on there than what is—for now. Without bots or trolls or a crystallized top film of brands and ads, there’s relief—and a tantalizing promise of something finally civilized. But the familiarity can overwhelm. At least for now, Threads essentially confines you within your established Instagram network, which is as comforting as it is, well, tedious. Imagine sitting through a roll call of your entire contacts list (except this list came overwhelmingly preweighted in favor of, shall we say, the more visually successful among us). As it turns out, the prevailing theory that social media would be better if it was only limited to the verified deities and people we actually “know” (i.e., care about enough to suffer through their vacation photo dumps) is wrong. After a few hours, you start to really miss the randos.

    The irony of Threads is that it’s not so much succeeding at replicating the experience of being on Twitter as it is proving how utterly hostage-esque the experience of being on Instagram has become. Over the past year, we’ve seen IG turn into a force-feeding nozzle trying to pump each of us into a submissive state of endless shopping and mediocre video-watching. The grid is only nominally more junked than Stories, where every other supposed portrait of chummy candor is sandwiched between ads that will probably follow you to your grave. No wonder Threads feels pleasant and twee. That’s how Instagram—and any online place not yet beholden to the economics of platform enshittification—used to be. Back when Bluesky was still the cool new kid in town, I wrote about the potential upside of our great Twitter Diasporic Moment: how new, untilled spaces can restore a sense of fun and chumminess but also the increasingly limited opportunity to experiment with one’s identity. In the face of the ongoing algorithmic deluge, an online self that resists cohesive packaging—that is, branding—paradoxically preserves a sense of true self we can still cling to. We get a few last gasps before the flood.

    Threads pretends to be this kind of place, where you can still be anyone you want. But the truth is that your identity here is already spoken for. As many enthusiastic early adopters have already discovered, Meta is only interested in a package deal: if you want to delete your Threads profile one day, you’ll have to erase yourself on Instagram too.

    So, once again, it looks like we’re still pretty stuck.

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    Delia Cai

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  • Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says

    Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says

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    Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, gains 10 million users in under 24 hours, Zuckerberg says – CBS News


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    Threads, the new social media platform owned by Meta, has amassed more than 10 million sign-ups in less than 24 hours, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Ryan Heath, global tech correspondent for Axios, has more on the new challenger to Twitter.

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  • Zuckerberg claims millions of Threads signups within hours of launch

    Zuckerberg claims millions of Threads signups within hours of launch

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    More than 10 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch, the Facebook parent’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.

    The number is likely to grow quickly as more Instagram users and social media fans open accounts on Threads, with NBC News reporting that 23 million had signed up by Thursday morning. It cited the number of Threads badges on Instagram users’ accounts, which indicates they have opened a Threads account.

    Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of social media’s most iconic companies, despite its epic struggles.

    The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday and won’t have ads for now.

    Threads had been slated for release at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday but the company on Wednesday pushed forward its countdown clock.

    threads-homepage.jpg
    The Threads homepage as it launched on July 5, 2023.

    threads.net


    “10 million sign ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg wrote on his official Threads account Thursday.

    Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist, as well as CBS News, the parent of CBS MoneyWatch.

    Zuckerberg’s first Threads posts

    Zuckerberg spent the first few hours of the platform’s launch replying to new users.

    “One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.

    “Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another.

    Zuckerberg also offered a shot across the bow at Musk — they’re are known to be bitter rivals and have even offered to meet each other in a fighting cage to wrestle it out.

    In his first tweet in over a decade, Zuckerberg posted a Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in an apparent reference to the similarity of the two platforms.

    Back on Threads, he wrote: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Twitter has said it has more than 200 million daily users.

    Twitter killer?

    In the days leading up to Threads’ release, some people on social media referred to it as a “Twitter killer” because of the expectation that some users of the rival platform will jump ship in favor of the new app. Some Twitter users have expressed frustration with recent changes instituted by Musk.

    Twitter has also seen a spike in hate speech since Musk bought the platform last year.

    Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

    Zuckerberg is widely understood to be taking advantage of Musk’s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies and politicians.

    COMBO-US-TECHNOLOGY-META-TWITTER
    Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg 

    MANDEL NGAN,ALAIN JOCARD / AFP via Getty Images


    “It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic financial analyst Brian Wieser said on Substack.

    Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.”

    “Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she added.

    Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told users that Threads was intended to build “an open and friendly platform for conversations.”

    “The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,” he said.

    Twitter changes under Musk  

    Under Musk, Twitter has seen content moderation reduced to a minimum, with glitches and rash decisions scaring away celebrities and major advertisers.

    Musk hired advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to steady the ship, but she has not been spared his whimsy.

    The Tesla tycoon said last week that he was limiting access to Twitter to ward off AI companies from “scraping” the site to train their technology.

    Musk then angered Twitter’s most devoted aficionados by declaring that access to its TweetDeck product — which enables users to view a fast flow of tweets at once — would be for paying customers only.

    Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in Europe, and despite Instagram’s massive user base, they could slow the site’s development.

    The company is criticized mainly for its handling of personal data — the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.

    Mosseri said he regretted that the EU launch was delayed, but if Meta had waited for regulatory clarity from Brussels, Threads would remain “many, many, many, months away.”

    “I was worried that our window would close, because timing is important,” he added to Platformer, a tech news site.

    Data issues

    According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.

    One rule restricts platforms from transferring personal data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.

    Meta was called out for doing just that after it bought the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure that the company doesn’t do so illegally with Threads.

    Globally, the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets, with many users jokingly suggesting users would be returning to Twitter.

    “10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a video of a man sprinting.

    Another shared an image of Homer Simpson running back and forth between the Twitter and Threads logos.

    By midday local time Thursday, Threads was the top trending topic on Japan Twitter, but many users expressed concerns over data privacy.

    “Threads is run by Meta, isn’t it? It will definitely leak your real name or the game you are playing, or put you in the list of your workplace company friends,” wrote one user.

    Another said: “Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information. I also have the impression that this is a company hated by EU, so I’m reluctant.” 

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  • Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet in over a decade is playful jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter

    Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet in over a decade is playful jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter

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    Mark Zuckerberg’s new “Twitter killer” app Threads has officially arrived. And the CEO of its parent company Meta took no time to use it as an opportunity to take a jab at the social media platform owned by his business rival Elon Musk. 

    Zuckerberg hadn’t tweeted since January 18, 2012, at which time he asked people to “tell your congressmen you want them to be pro-internet.” But on Wednesday, as soon as Threads launched, he posted a popular Spider-Man meme in which two identical Spidermen are pointing at each other. 

    He didn’t include a caption – but no words were needed. 

    Zuckerberg and Musk have grown to be social media business rivals, with the two going so far as to agree to fight in a cage match.  The meme is seemingly a reference to Threads’ launch, as the app was designed to be a direct competitor with Twitter. 

    “Our vision is to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind,” Zuckerberg said in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “I think the world needs this kind of friendly community, and I’m grateful to all of you who are part of Threads from day one.” 

    The platform is visually very similar to Twitter, with people posting status updates that can be liked, commented on, reposted and shared. 

    “Whether you’re a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations,” Meta’s press release about its launch says. “…Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.”

    It hasn’t taken long for many people to join the platform. Within the first few hours of its launch, Zuckerberg said that more than 10 million people had signed up, though his ultimate goal is significantly higher. 

    “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it,” he said on Threads. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Twitter had about 368 million monthly active users as of December, according to Statista, but the website says that number is expected to drop by about 5% by 2024. 

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  • New Economic Initiative Would Require Companies Go Back To Naming Products What They Do Plus ‘O-Matic’

    New Economic Initiative Would Require Companies Go Back To Naming Products What They Do Plus ‘O-Matic’

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    WASHINGTON—In an attempt by the think tank to find a model for sustainable growth of the U.S. economy, a new initiative proposed Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute would require companies to go back to naming products by combining what they do with the suffix “O-Matic.” “Our research shows that businesses create more value for the American economy when they take a word that describes what they do—say, investing—and then, in that case, make their brand name Invest-O-Matic,” said EPI senior fellow Ronald Wong, who found the suffix could increase company revenues by 400% within the first year after its adoption, and sometimes more if the number 5000 was placed at the end of the name. “It’s unclear why we abandoned this time-honored naming standard in the first place. It’s simply counterintuitive to call a multicooker an Instant Pot, for example, when it could be called a Cook-O-Matic, or to call a robot vacuum a Roomba instead of a Vac-O-Matic. Facebook would be a trillion-dollar company by now if Mark Zuckerberg had possessed the foresight to name his social media platform Friend-O-Matic.” Wong added that the federal government could help encourage the new initiative by requiring all aerospace and defense contractors who do business with the U.S. military to call their products the Death-O-Matic 5000.

    This Week’s Most Viral News: June 30, 2023

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  • Zuckerberg claims more than 10 million Threads signups within hours of launch

    Zuckerberg claims more than 10 million Threads signups within hours of launch

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    More than 10 million people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch, the Facebook parent’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.

    Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of social media’s most iconic companies, despite its epic struggles.

    The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday and won’t have ads for now.

    Threads had been slated for release at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday but the company on Wednesday pushed forward its countdown clock.

    threads-homepage.jpg
    The Threads homepage as it launched on July 5, 2023.

    threads.net


    “10 million sign ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg wrote on his official Threads account Thursday.

    Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist.

    Zuckerberg spent the first few hours of the platform’s launch replying to new users.

    “One thing that’s up is the number of world champion MMA fighters on Threads, especially now that you’re here!” he wrote in a reply to American MMA fighter Jon Jones.

    “Round one of this thing is getting off to a good start,” he said in another.

    Zuckerberg also offered a shot across the bow at Musk — they’re are known to be bitter rivals and have even offered to meet each other in a fighting cage to wrestle it out.

    In his first tweet in over a decade, Zuckerberg posted a Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in an apparent reference to the similarity of the two platforms.

    Back on Threads, he wrote: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Twitter has said it has more than 200 million daily users.

    In the days leading up to Threads’ release, some people on social media referred to it as a “Twitter killer” because of the expectation that some users of the rival platform will jump ship in favor of the new app. Some Twitter users have expressed frustration with recent changes instituted by Musk.

    Twitter has also seen a spike in hate speech since Musk bought the platform last year.

    Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

    Zuckerberg is widely understood to be taking advantage of Musk’s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to communication channel for celebrities, companies and politicians.

    “It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic financial analyst Brian Wieser said on Substack.

    Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.”

    “Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she added.

    Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told users that Threads was intended to build “an open and friendly platform for conversations.”

    “The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,” he said.

    Under Musk, Twitter has seen content moderation reduced to a minimum, with glitches and rash decisions scaring away celebrities and major advertisers.

    Musk hired advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to steady the ship, but she has not been spared his whimsy.

    The Tesla tycoon said last week that he was limiting access to Twitter to ward off AI companies from “scraping” the site to train their technology.

    Musk then angered Twitter’s most devoted aficionados by declaring that access to its TweetDeck product — which enables users to view a fast flow of tweets at once — would be for paying customers only.

    Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in Europe, and despite Instagram’s massive user base, they could slow the site’s development.

    The company is criticized mainly for its handling of personal data — the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits every quarter.

    Mosseri said he regretted that the EU launch was delayed, but if Meta had waited for regulatory clarity from Brussels, Threads would remain “many, many, many, months away.”

    “I was worried that our window would close, because timing is important,” he added to Platformer, a tech news site.

    According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.

    One rule restricts platforms from transferring personal data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.

    Meta was called out for doing just that after it bought the messaging app WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure that the company doesn’t do so illegally with Threads.

    Globally, the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets, with many users jokingly suggesting users would be returning to Twitter.

    “10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a video of a man sprinting.

    Another shared an image of Homer Simpson running back and forth between the Twitter and Threads logos.

    By midday local time Thursday, Threads was the top trending topic on Japan Twitter, but many users expressed concerns over data privacy.

    “Threads is run by Meta, isn’t it? It will definitely leak your real name or the game you are playing, or put you in the list of your workplace company friends,” wrote one user.

    Another said: “Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information. I also have the impression that this is a company hated by EU, so I’m reluctant.” 

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  • Tech stocks close out best first half in 40 years, powered by Apple rally and Nvidia boom

    Tech stocks close out best first half in 40 years, powered by Apple rally and Nvidia boom

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    Apple CEO Tim Cook stands next to the new Apple Vision Pro headset is displayed during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    The last time technology stocks had a better first half, Apple was touting its Lisa desktop computer, IBM was the most-valuable tech company in the U.S. and Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t been born.

    On Friday, the Nasdaq wrapped up the first six months of the year with a 1.5% rally, bringing its gains so far for 2023 to 32%. That’s the sharpest first-half jump in the tech-heavy index since 1983, when the Nasdaq rose 37%.

    It’s a startling achievement, given what’s happened in the tech industry over the past four decades. Microsoft went public in 1986, sparking a PC software boom. Then came the internet browsers of the 1990s, leading up to the dot-com bubble years and the soaring prices of e-commerce, search and computer-networking stocks. The past decade saw the emergence of the mega-cap, trillion-dollar companies, which are now the most valuable enterprises in the U.S.

    While those prior eras featured sustained rallies, none of them had a start to the year rivaling 2023.

    Even more stunning, it’s happening this year while the U.S. economy is still at risk of slipping into recession and reckoning with a banking crisis, highlighted by the collapse in March of Silicon Valley Bank, the financial nucleus for much of the venture and startup world. The Federal Reserve also steadily increased its benchmark interest rate to the highest since 2007.

    But momentum is always a driver when it comes to tech, and investors are notoriously fearful of missing out, even if they simultaneously worry about frothy valuations.

    Coming off a miserable 2022, in which the Nasdaq lost one-third of its value, the big story was cost-cutting and efficiency. Mass layoffs at Alphabet, Meta and Amazon as well as at numerous smaller companies paved the way for a rebound in earnings and a more realistic outlook for growth.

    Meta and Tesla, which both got hammered last year, have more than doubled in value so far in 2023. Alphabet is up 36% after dropping 39% in 2022.

    None of those companies were around the last time the Nasdaq had a better start to the year. Meta CEO Zuckerberg, who created the company formerly known as Facebook in 2004, was born in 1984. Tesla was founded in 2003, five years after Google, the predecessor to Alphabet.

    As 2023 got going, attention turned to artificial intelligence and a flood of activity around generative AI chatbots, which respond to text-based queries with intelligent and conversational responses. Microsoft-backed OpenAI has become a household name (and was No. 1 on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list) with its ChatGPT program, and dollars are pouring into Nvidia, whose chips are used to power AI workloads at many of the companies taking advantage of the latest advancements.

    Nvidia shares soared 190% in the first half, lifting the 30-year-old company’s market cap past $1 trillion.

    “I think you’re going to continue to see tech dominate because we’re still all abuzz about AI,” said Bryn Talkington, managing partner at Requisite Capital Management, in an interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday.

    Talkington, whose firm holds Nvidia shares, said the chipmaker has a unique story, and that its growth is not shared across the industry. Rather, large companies working on AI have to spend heavily on Nvidia’s technology.

    “Nvidia not only owns the shovels and axes of this AI goldrush,” Talkington said. “They actually are the only hardware store in town.”

    Remember the $10,000 Lisa?

    Apple hasn’t seen gains quite so dramatic, but the stock is still up 50% this year, trading at a record and pushing the iPhone maker to a $3 trillion market cap.

    Apple still counts on the iPhone for the bulk of its revenue, but its latest jump into virtual reality with the announcement this month of the Vision Pro headset has helped reinvigorate investor enthusiasm. It was Apple’s first major product release since 2014, and will be available starting at $3,499 beginning early next year.

    That sounds like a lot, except when compared to the price tag for the initial Lisa computer, which Apple rolled out 40 years ago. That PC, named after co-founder Steve Jobs’ daughter, started at $10,000, keeping it far out of the hands of mainstream consumers.

    Apple’s revenue in 1983 was roughly $1 billion, or about the amount of money the company brought in on an average day in the first quarter of 2023 (Apple’s fiscal second quarter).

    Tech was the clear story for the equity markets in the first half, as the broader S&P 500 notched a 16% gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose just 2.9%.

    Investors searching for red flags heading into the second half don’t have to look far.

    Global economic concerns persist, highlighted by uncertainty surrounding the war in Russia and Ukraine and ongoing trade tensions with China. Short-term interest rates are now above 5%, meaning investors can get risk-free returns in the mid-single digits from certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts.

    Another sign of skepticism is the absence of a tech IPO market, as emerging companies continue to sit on the sidelines despite brewing enthusiasm across the industry. There hasn’t been a notable venture capital-backed tech IPO in the U.S. since late 2021, and investors and bankers tell CNBC that the second half of the year is poised to remain quiet, as companies wait for better predictability in their numbers.

    Jim Tierney, chief investment officer of U.S. concentrated growth at AllianceBernstein, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Friday that there are plenty of challenges for investors to consider. Like Talkington, he’s unsure how much of a boost the broader corporate world is seeing from AI at the moment.

    “Getting to AI specifically, I think we have to see benefit for all companies,” Tierney said. “That will come, I’m just not sure that’s going to happen in the second half of this year.”

    Meanwhile, economic data is mixed. A survey earlier this month from CNBC and Morning Consult found that 92% of Americans are cutting back on spending as inflationary pressures persist.

    “The fundamentals get tougher,” Tierney said. “You look at consumer spending today, the consumer is pulling back. All of that suggests that the fundamentals are more stretched here than not.”

    WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with Ron Insana and Jim Tierney

    Watch CNBC's full interview with Contrast Capital's Ron Insana and Alliance Bernstein's Jim Tierney

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  • Elon Musk’s Mom Doesn’t Want Him to Fight Mark Zuckerberg | Entrepreneur

    Elon Musk’s Mom Doesn’t Want Him to Fight Mark Zuckerberg | Entrepreneur

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    This should end well.

    A battle of the billionaires may be upon us after Mark Zuckerberg appeared to have accepted (or, more like, encouraged) Elon Musk’s request to duel in a cage match.

    The bizarre interaction began on Twitter when Musk, 51, responded to a Tweet that claimed Zuckerberg’s Meta was developing a new platform reportedly called “Threads,” which will pose as a “Twitter Rival” that will allow users to carry over their followers and user information directly from Instagram.

    Another Twitter user then riffed on Musk’s response, warning him to steer clear of Zuckerberg, 39, since he’s now a newly acclaimed Jiu-Jitsu champion.

    Things then proceeded to get even more unbelievable from there when Zuckerberg took a screenshot of the Twitter interaction and posted it to his personal Instagram along with the words “Send me location.”

    A Meta spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that Zuckerberg was very serious about his agreement to the match, simply saying “The [Instagram] story speaks for itself.”

    Musk then suggested the “Vegas Octagon” as a location for the fight via Twitter while adding that he has some special moves up his sleeve that Zuckerberg should watch out for.

    Musk’s model mom, Maye, however, is putting an end to squabble. The 75-year-old Tweeted shortly after the debacle that the fight has been canceled.

    Then, after Elon replied with fire emojis to a video of UFC President Dana White talking about the potential for a real fight, Maye decided to set some ground rules.

    Of course, Twitter had a field day in the replies.

    One Elon parody account wrote, “Mom, I’m fighting him, stop!” and followed up with another Tweet in the same fashion.

    Musk and Zuckerberg have been pitted against each other by the media as two of the richest men in the world and two of the biggest influences in the modern-day tech industry.

    In 2014, Zuckerberg invited Musk to dinner at his home after Musk had raised concerns about the dangers of AI. Musk has since doubled down on his views about AI and even Tweeted that he doesn’t “like Facebook,” adding that it gives him “the willies.”

    Oddly enough, Zuckerberg complimented Twitter’s owner weeks ago on an episode of “The Lex Fridman Podcast” when he was asked about his feelings towards Musk’s efforts with Twitter.

    “Elon led a push early on to make Twitter a lot leaner,” Zuckerberg said. “I think that those were generally good changes.”

    Should the cage match actually take place, Musk might have to enroll in some extra training — Zuckerberg has taken up quite the interest in Jiu-Jitsu recently, even winning gold at his first-ever tournament.

    Related: Instagram Is Reportedly Rolling Out A Text-Based App to Compete With Twitter

    “You don’t know this nerd is a silent killer,” said Khai Wu, Zuckerberg’s trainer at the Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Academy in San Jose.

    Let’s get ready to rumble!

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    Emily Rella

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  • From RFK Jr.’s Shirtless Workout to Elon’s Cage Match: It’s Been a Big Week for Boys Spoiling for a Fight

    From RFK Jr.’s Shirtless Workout to Elon’s Cage Match: It’s Been a Big Week for Boys Spoiling for a Fight

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    Since time immemorial, men have loved to challenge each other to fights. In antiquity, they wrestled it out. In the Middle Ages, there was the joust. In the Industrial Age, we had our pistol duels. Times being remarkably online as they are now, men are challenging each other to debates. Occasionally, when, say, a Paul brother is involved, these debates still occur with fists in front of an audience, but by and large, “debate me” has become the “shall we settle this outside” of our times. It’s nice that modern men get to participate in a grand Western tradition, though also a little sad that we are in the umpteenth century of men toiling under the impression that shouting for a big, public fight is good instead of strange and small. Let’s look at some recent trends in the space of dudes challenging dudes.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 69-year-old son of Robert F. Kennedy and vocal anti-vaxxer, who once compared having the opportunity to take a COVID-19 vaccine to living in Hitler’s Germany, is saying, “Debate me!” to President Joe Biden, while shirtless (he later apologized for the Hitler comparison). Well, to put a real fine point on it, he’s doing incline reps sans shirt at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach and tweeting that it’s all in preparation for a debate with Biden that is pretty certain to never, ever happen. Why? Well, he’d like to be the next Democratic president of these United States. Why would Mr. Kennedy operate under the impression that doing push-ups with his nips out will help his chances of becoming president of these United States? As we learned from the last long-shot failson to make it into the White House, it probably doesn’t hurt to put the pec in spectacle. (For the record, said previous long-shot failson has seriously divergent views on the relative benefits of physical activity.)

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    Speaking of spectacle, Elon Musk recently started starting something too. The owner of Tesla and Twitter last week responded to some guy’s post about Meta reportedly creating a Twitter-like product under its banner, with another commenter suggesting a cage match with Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO. 

    “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Musk said. Sometimes he makes his little jokes and his reply guys say, “Yay,” and everyone else whose desk it crosses says, “It’s weird he didn’t get all this silly energy out at grade seven, but here we are I suppose.” 

    This could have been just another day of Musk saying stuff on the internet, but then Zuck replied by posting on Instagram, which is owned by Meta, “send me location.” A spokesperson for Meta told The Verge, “The story speaks for itself,” meaning it is not just two guys shitposting at each other. Unless you believe it is. Some real, clear messaging from the owners of two of the largest messaging platforms in human existence.

    The thing is, this makes a lot of sense—though maybe not in a way Elon or Zuck would like. If you, by hook or more likely by crook, reach an income that is a certain percentage of your lowest paid employee’s income, you should be automatically entered into a Hunger Games-style cage match for the benefit of everyone else’s entertainment. Listen, the fight can be on a yacht, if you like. It can be in Las Vegas, as this one is supposedly going to be. (Musk replied to Zuck’s call for a location with “Vegas Octagon.”) But you should have to commit your life to fighting other mega-elites with your fists.

    Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, disagrees with the wisdom of a fight in general. She insisted in a tweet that the “fight is canceled,” and later tried to appeal to her son’s self-perception as a guy who is funny by suggesting, “A verbal fight only. Three questions each. The funniest answers win. Who agrees?”

    Not me! I don’t agree, Ma Musk. Three questions isn’t going to do it. They must fight to the death. On this there can be no debate.

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    Kenzie Bryant

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  • Andrew Tate Offers To Train Elon Musk In Cage Match With Zuckerberg

    Andrew Tate Offers To Train Elon Musk In Cage Match With Zuckerberg

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    Ex-pro kickboxer Andrew Tate, who is currently under house arrest after being criminally charged with rape and human trafficking, has offered to train Elon Musk to fight Mark Zuckerberg after the two billionaires this week agreed to a cage match. What do you think?

    “Offering to help someone is a total beta cuck move.”

    Bria Powell, Turkey Slicer 

    This Week’s Most Viral News: June 2, 2023

    “Having all three in the same place would provide a great opportunity to seal off the room.”

    Diego Armin, Coral Bleacher

    “Something tells me Elon’s already learned an awful lot from Andrew Tate.”

    Pete Fuller, Unemployed

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  • How Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Spends His $65 Billion Fortune | Entrepreneur

    How Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Spends His $65 Billion Fortune | Entrepreneur

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    This story originally appeared on Business Insider.

    Mark Zuckerberg is one of the wealthiest people in the world.

    The Meta founder and CEO’s fortune surpassed $100 billion last year, making him one of 10 centi-billionaires on the planet. As of June, Zuckerberg’s net worth was $101.1 billion, according to Forbes.

    Zuckerberg mostly keeps a low profile, but he does splurge on real estate — especially in the tropical paradise that is Hawaii. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, also invest in childhood education and medical research.

    More recently, Zuckerberg accepted a random challenge from Twitter CEO Elon Musk to a “cage match.” The Meta CEO is known to participate in jiu-jitsu tournaments and other recreational sports.

    Here’s how the tech mogul spends his billions, from cars to properties to charity.

    Facebook debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2012.

    Zuckerberg in New York May 18, 2012. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

    Eight years after its founding, Facebook clocked in the milestone. At the time, it was the biggest technology IPO in history and it sent Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth soaring.

    Much of Zuckerberg’s fortune comes from Meta.

    Mark Zuckerberg 2020

    Getty via BI

    The exec has a 13% stake in the company, whose parent company is now called Meta.

    But he doesn’t make a large salary — in fact, his take-home pay is just $1.

    Source: Bloomberg, Insider

    But he’s fairly low-key.

    mark zuckerberg priscilla chan

    Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Bloomberg via Getty Images via BI

    Despite his status as one of the richest tech moguls, the 38-year-old Harvard dropout leads a down-to-earth lifestyle with his wife, Priscilla Chan, and their two young daughters.

    And he’s not a fan of flashy clothes.

    Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Connect 2021

    Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook Connect 2021 Facebook via BI

    Like many other Silicon Valley stalwarts, Zuckerberg doesn’t dress in flashy suits — he keeps things simple in jeans, t-shirts, and sweaters.

    But they’re reportedly much more expensive than they look, retailing for hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars.

    Source: Insider, GQ

    Neither is he into flashy vehicles.

    Mark zuckerberg in a car

    Zuckerberg in 2012. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images via BI

    Zuckerberg is known for driving relatively inexpensive cars. He’s been seen in an Acura TSX and a Honda Fit, both of which are valued at or under $30,000.

    Sources: Insider, CNBC

    He loves his signature Volkswagen.

    Volkswagen Golf GTI

    Tony Avelar/AP via BI

    He’s been spotted driving a black Volkswagen Golf GTI, a car that he bought well after making his fortune. That car would cost about $30,000 new.

    Source: Insider

    Although he did splurge on a car …

    mark zuck pagani huayra

    Mark Zuckerberg and a Pagani Huayra. Not Zuckerberg’s actual car. Charles Platiau/Reuters and Norbert Aepli/Wikimedia/CC 2.0

    He has dropped serious cash on at least one sports car: an Italian Pagani Huayra that sells for about $1.3 million.

    Source: Insider, Yahoo

    And most recently, he posted some new wheels on Instagram.

    for

    Not Zuckerberg’s car. John Prieto/The Denver Post via Getty Images via BI

    In July, Zuckerberg posted a photo of what appeared to be two refurbished vintage Ford Broncos, one baby blue and one black, with the caption “his and hers.” The price is unknown.

    He spends money more freely on real estate.

    mark zuckerberg house home palo alto 4x3

    Zillow via BI

    In May 2011, he bought a 5,000-square-foot home in Palo Alto for $7 million. He’s since tricked it out with a “custom-made artificially intelligent assistant.”

    Source: San Francisco Chronicle, CNBC

    Then he bought up nearby land.

    Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, a self-made billionaire.

    KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / Contributor / Getty via BI

    The next year, Zuckerberg began buying the properties surrounding his home, spending more than $30 million to acquire four homes with plans to level them and rebuild.

    Source: San Francisco Chronicle, CNBC

    He also used to own a townhouse in the Mission District of San Francisco.

    san francisco dolores park covid social distancing park

    San Francisco in 2020. Ahmet Karaman/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images via BI

    He bought the 5,500-square-foot home in 2013 and proceeded to make over $1 million in renovations, including adding a greenhouse and remodeling the kitchen.

    But in July 2022, he sold it in an off-market sale for $31 million, the biggest residential real estate deal in San Francisco so far this year.

    Source: Curbed San Francisco, Business Insider

    Then there’s Hawaii.

    Kauai Hawaii

    A beach in Kauai. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images via BI

    In 2014, the billionaire’s real-estate portfolio jumped the Pacific when he spent $100 million on two properties on the island of Kaua’i: the Kahu’aina Plantation, a 357-acre former sugarcane plantation, and Pila’a Beach, a 393-acre property with a white-sand beach.

    Source: Insider, Forbes

    But there’s been backlash.

    Kauai, Hawaii

    A beach in Kauai. Jennifer McDermott/AP via BI

    In 2016, Zuckerberg angered neighbors by constructing a 6-foot wall around his property, and in 2017, Zuckerberg filed suit against Hawaiian families who had legal-ownership claims on parcels of land within his property. Though he dropped the suit, residents accused him of “neocolonialism.”

    Source: Insider

    He’s adding onto his Hawaii properties too.

    Wailua Falls in Kaua'i, Hawaii.

    Wailua Falls in Kaua’i, Hawaii. Andriy Prokopenko/Getty Images via BI

    In March 2021, he spent $53 million on nearly 600 acres of land on Kauai and in December, he purchased 110 more acres of land nearby for $17 million.

    Source: Insider

    The purchases serve as a respite for the executive.

    mark zuckerberg facebook

    Facebook via BI

    When Zuckerberg is in Hawaii, he appears to spend his time unwinding and enjoying some hobbies. He’s been photographed riding a $12,000 electric surfboard in the ocean off Kaua’i and practices shooting arrows and throwing spears on his property.

    Source: Insider, Insider

    Zuckerberg made another massive real estate purchase in 2018.

    lake tahoe

    Lake Tahoe. Gado/Getty Images via BI

    He shelled out for two lakefront properties on Lake Tahoe, which cost a combined $59 million. One of the houses, called the Brushwood Estate, spans 5,233 square feet on six acres of land. The property features a guest house and a private dock.

    Between his two Lake Tahoe properties, Zuckerberg owns about 600 feet of private shoreline on Lake Tahoe’s west shore. When Zuckerberg buys properties, he tends to buy the other homes surrounding it for privacy reasons, just as he did in Palo Alto.

    Source: Insider, SF Gate

    Zuckerberg doesn’t appear to travel much for pleasure.

    Mark Zuckerberg smiles while walking outside at 2021 Sun Valley conference

    Zuckerberg this summer. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images via BI

    But when he traverses the globe for work, Meta foots the bill: security for Zuckerberg and his family cost the company $23 million in 2020, the company reported.

    Source: Insider

    Ultimately, opulence and luxury are just a blip on Zuckerberg’s radar.

    In fact, his main priority seems to be giving his money away, rather than spending it.

    Zuckerberg has signed onto the Giving Pledge.

    Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg

    Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg Beck Diefenbach/Reuters via BI

    He joined Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and over 200 other millionaires and billionaires who have vowed to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. He plans to sell 99% of his Facebook shares during his lifetime.

    Source: Insider

    He plans to donate significantly to his and his wife’s organization.

    Mark Zuckerberg Priscilla Chan

    Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. Peter Barreras/Invision/AP

    Zuckerberg said in September 2017 that he planned to sell 35 to 75 million shares over the following 18 months to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, totaling between $6 billion and $12 billion.

    The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic organization Zuckerberg founded with his wife in 2015 focused on “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people, and building strong communities.” CZI has awarded nearly $3 billion in grants over the years.

    Source: Insider, Insider, CZI

    CZI is invested in tackling both local and global issues.

    priscilla chan

    Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via BI

    In 2020, for example, the organization poured $4.2 million into a jobs program for residents of Kaua’i and committed $1 million to help the region battle the coronavirus. CZI has also contributed millions in the last year to causes like criminal justice reform and affordable housing.

    Source: Insider, CZI

    The pair have also donated to research.

    Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

    Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan AP via BI

    Zuckerberg and Chan have poured billions into research focused on curing the world’s diseases by the end of the century. In order to accomplish this lofty goal, CZI launched a nonprofit called Biohub to start looking into the cure for diseases, including research on genomics, infectious diseases, and implantable devices.

    Source: Insider, Insider

    Zuckerberg believes that Biohub will help speed up research to cure disease.

    Mark Zuckerberg

    Drew Angerer/Getty Images via BI

    He told The New Yorker in 2018 that “we’ll basically have been able to manage or cure all of the major things that people suffer from and die from today. Based on the data that we already see, it seems like there’s a reasonable shot.”

    Source: The New Yorker

    Zuckerberg’s day job is still keeping him busy, however.

    mark zuckerberg

    Hannah McKay-Pool/Getty Images via BI

    In the past couple of years alone, he’s testified before lawmakers, attempted to quash coronavirus misinformation on Facebook, and suspended former President Donald Trump from the platform.

    Then there were the whistleblowers.

    Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies to Senate committee

    The Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to a Senate committee. Matt McClain/Getty Images via BI

    In 2021, two former employees came forward with allegations that the company’s leadership consistently chose profits over safety.

    One of the whistleblowers, Frances Haugen, leaked a trove of internal documents, known as the Facebook Papers, that detailed internal challenges like the company’s impact on teenagers and how it’s grappled with hate speech.

    In come the ‘Metamates’

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing Meta

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing the Meta rebrand on Thursday. Eric Risberg/AP Photo

    In October 2021, Facebook officially changed its corporate name to Meta to reflect its new focus on the metaverse, a virtual space where users can interact digitally as avatars.

    “From now on, we’ll be metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Zuckerberg said at the time.

    Source: Insider

    A ‘cage match’ with Elon Musk?

    In his spare time, Zuckerberg might also accept a challenge to fight one of his billionaire contemporaries.

    On Tuesday, Tesla founder and Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he’d be “up for a cage match” with Zuckerberg.

    Zuckerberg, who is known to practice jiu-jitsu, responded Wednesday via Instagram story: “Send Me Location.”

    Musk proposed The Octagon in Las Vegas, where UFC tournaments are held.

    It’s unclear if Musk or Zuckerberg will be fronting their own money to put on the match.

    The Meta founder likes to share how he stays in shape, training in MMA and participating in jiu-jitsu tournaments.

    In May, Zuckerberg said that he won two medals at a jiu-jitsu tournament in Redwood City, California.

    Meanwhile, Zuckerberg’s wealth has soared.

    Mark Zuckerberg Paris. France 2019

    Getty via BI

    Back in August 2020, the launch of a new Instagram feature designed to compete with TikTok sent both the company’s share price and Zuckerberg’s net worth to new heights.

    The move caused Zuckerberg’s net worth to exceed $100 billion for the first time, making him one of 10 centi-billionaires on Earth.

    His wealth has dropped and fluctuated since then. Around February, the CEO’s worth was around $67.2 billion.

    But after the brief plunge, his net worth returned to the $100 billion threshold in June for the first time since February 2022, Forbes reported.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Tanza Loudenback, Taylor Nicole Rogers, and Liz Knueven contributed to an earlier version of this story.

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    Avery Hartmans, Katie Canales, and Lloyd Lee

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  • Mark Zuckerberg agrees to fight Elon Musk in cage match:

    Mark Zuckerberg agrees to fight Elon Musk in cage match:

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    Elon Musk addresses Twitter controversies


    Elon Musk addresses Twitter controversies

    01:59

    Mark Zuckerberg has apparently agreed to fight Elon Musk in a cage match that would feature the billionaire leaders of two giant tech companies. Whether the two tech moguls are joking remains to be seen.

    While replying to a user discussing Meta’s plans to build a Twitter rival, Musk challenged the company’s founder on Wednesday to a “cage match” if he’s up for it. Zuckerberg responded to a screenshot of the tweet and said, “Send me location” in a story on Instagram, which is owned by Meta. 

    Mark Zuckerberg took a screenshot of Elon Musk’s tweet challenging him to a cage match and said, “Send Me Location.” 

    Instagram


    Musk, Twitter’s executive chair and chief technology officer, suggested the “Vegas Octagon” – possibly referring to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas – as the site for their billionaire brawl. He also jokingly added that he has a “move” called the “Walrus” where he lays on top of an opponent and does nothing. 

    Still, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla wrote that he will do it “if this is for real.” When asked about the fight, a Meta spokesperson told CBS News: “The story speaks for itself.” 

    Musk is a few inches taller than Zuckerberg, but his fighting skills are unknown and said he almost never works out. However, Zuckerberg recently won gold and silver medals in his first jiu-jitsu tournament. A series of six photos showed the Meta founder grappling with different opponents at the Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition in May. 

    It’s unclear if both entrepreneurs are actually serious about the match. Whether it happens or not, the potential fight is already receiving buzz. Social media star and pro boxer Jake Paul told Musk that he will “gladly promote” it. 

    There appears to be no love lost between the business leaders who’ve had public disagreements over their platforms. Musk has toyed with Zuckerberg on his platform and criticized the Metaverse. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg said in a podcast he believes Twitter should have a “billion people using it.” 

    Christopher Brito


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    Christopher Brito is a social media manager and trending content writer for CBS News.

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