Business/Markets/Stocks/Economics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

Seth Abramson
@sethabramson@bird.makeup
How’s that going now, sport?

NPR: Twitter’s “X” Sign Taken Down After Neighbors File Two Dozen Complaints

Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/11910551 ... ation-musk

Couldn’t have happened to a bigger PoS. So happy for you, @elonmusk—your new logo is winning Bad Design awards *and* getting taken down

[Owendonovan]

No one will call it X, like no one calls Meta, Meta, they call it Facebook.

[ponchi101]

Indeed. Is it even a good marketing plot? One of the most recognized brands in the world that almost holds a monopoly on a type of platform, and you decide to change the name.
Do like Google. The umbrella corporation is called Alphabet, but nobody even uses the name. It was just for stock purposes. But they still call themselves Google.

[ti-amie]

Elon Musk’s X can’t send Blue subscribers their ad revenue-sharing payouts on time

/ Twitter / X announced late on Friday that the check is (not) in the mail.
By Richard Lawler, a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget.

Aug 4, 2023, 9:48 PM EDT|

In news that isn’t very surprising given the recent history of Twitter, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X, the company won’t be able to make some promised payments on time. The X Support account says that because its “Ads Revenue Sharing” program is so popular, “We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and aim to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible.”

From the linked support page:

August 4, 2023 update: The volume of people signing up for revenue sharing has exceeded our expectations. We previously said that payments would occur the week of July 31st. We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and hope to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience!

That’s not exactly what you’d want to hear from a program touting itself as “part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on X,” and the key to Elon Musk’s X dream for an app that handles banking, stock trading, and other vital financial features.

Musk announced the revenue-sharing plan in February, and the company sent out the first round of payments for eligible accounts (with paid verification via Twitter Blue or Verified organizations, 15 million “organic” impressions in the last three months, and at least 500 followers) a couple of weeks ago before opening up registration to more people.

However, hearing that payments aren’t arriving is familiar news to a number of people and organizations involved with X / Twitter since Musk’s takeover. That includes landlords of buildings used by Twitter in San Francisco and London or former employees of Twitter Africa who complain they were “ghosted” and left without promised severance payments. The list also features several former employees that filed a lawsuit against the company in May, saying “Twitter’s new leadership deliberately, specifically, and repeatedly announced their intentions to breach contracts, violate laws, and otherwise ignore their legal obligations,” while leaving rent, vendors, and severance unpaid.

A Wall Street Journal article in February counted nine lawsuits covering $14 million in unpaid bills at the time.

In July, Musk tweeted about Twitter / X’s financial situation, saying, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

But hey, Twitter’s unpaid Google Cloud bill reportedly got paid eventually, so maybe everyone who shelled out $8 (or $84 annually) in the hope of cashing in on Elon’s revenue sharing will get paid too — and soon.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/4/23820 ... -elon-musk

[ponchi101]

But, but... he wants X to be the platform where you can run ALL your finances!
He is starting (or is already well on his way) to make promises he can't keep on multiple platforms. FSD, the Cybertruck for TESLA, multiple issues with this TWT takeover, several issues with the SpaceX launch. This has to be taken in consideration when dealing with this guy.

[Suliso]

That's true, but one should also consider that most of the time he eventually delivers. Years late true, but still. SpaceX and Tesla are examples. X might not work out and maybe no one will want to buy Cybertruck, but we should give few more years to judge with clarity.

[ponchi101]

You defend him a bit too much, Suliso. This is not a young entrepreneur with no business acumen; he is the head of, currently, at least two of the leading companies in their fields (Tesla and SpaceX; TXT/X is obviously in a field of one).
Yet he continues to make mistakes that are not trivial.
The SpaceX launch, analyzed after a few months of reflection, was not a success. Sure, the chances of the rocket reaching orbit were around 50%, but other aspects that should have been taken care of were not. The launch pad destruction and the pollution and environmental impact should have been assessed prior to the launch; it is not as if this was the first launch of any rocket ever.
I say his management style is a bit reckless; make promises, but do not have a complete picture of what needs to be done or the consequences of cutting a corner. Or several.
And I know of at least one person (a neighbor in Colorado) that already put down money for his Cybertruck. IN 2019. Any other company that would not deliver that product in at least 3 years would have been sued already.

[Suliso]

I'm not really defending him (his politics are diametrically opposed to mine). All I was saying is that Tesla and SpaceX became dominant companies in their fields despite years of naysayers. Are you disputing that?

Certainly his management style seems to be a disaster, but I'd like to have a good explanation why it works. You'd expect his companies to be bankrupt long ago...

[Suliso]

The SpaceX launch, analyzed after a few months of reflection, was not a success. Sure, the chances of the rocket reaching orbit were around 50%, but other aspects that should have been taken care of were not. The launch pad destruction and the pollution and environmental impact should have been assessed prior to the launch; it is not as if this was the first launch of any rocket ever.

Success of the first launch would have been cool, but is of minor importance. The question me and others are eagerly awaiting an answer to is whether the entire Starship program will be a success. There is a good chance it will be, but also a non zero possibility that it will not be.

[ponchi101]

One of the explanations is that both SpaceX and Tesla have received considerable subsidies from the US Govt. A quick search gave me a figure $4.9 Bn, just from the government.
One thing he has done that I agree that has been brilliant is his manipulation of the TESLA image; there, I give him full credit. The people that buy TESLA's are acolytes; any car review will tell you that TESLA's have a lot of manufacturing issues, yet their buyers are super loyal and will accept all the issues that come with the cars. Issues that, in other brands, would not be accepted.

But overall, I find him to be the beneficiary of several lucky breaks. His departure from PayPal was less than stellar, for all the hoopla, TESLA has only three viable products (the S, the X and the 3) and we are waiting for SpaceX to deliver on that rocket.

Nothing wrong with that. Several of the big tech names received many breaks here and there. MS had no OS when Gates launched it (he took it from somebody else). Jobs' Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy when MS saved them (to avoid monopoly laws). GM and Chrysler were technically bankrupt after the financial meltdown of 2007. We will see where Musk leads TWT/X to, but if he manages to break it, it cannot be said that nobody saw it (I doubt it; it is simply too big and too ingrained in the modern way of communications).

[Suliso]

we are waiting for SpaceX to deliver on that rocket.

Wait a moment! Everything else you wrote makes sense except this. SpaceX has already delivered a dominant rocket. It's called Falcon 9 and launched flawlessly ca 60x last year. Starship is even more revolutionary but it's a product #2 not #1.

[ponchi101]

You are right. I was talking about Starship. Falcon 9 is a solid product, but I was not talking about that one.

[ti-amie]

One of the explanations is that both SpaceX and Tesla have received considerable subsidies from the US Govt. A quick search gave me a figure $4.9 Bn, just from the government.
One thing he has done that I agree that has been brilliant is his manipulation of the TESLA image; there, I give him full credit. The people that buy TESLA's are acolytes; any car review will tell you that TESLA's have a lot of manufacturing issues, yet their buyers are super loyal and will accept all the issues that come with the cars. Issues that, in other brands, would not be accepted.

But overall, I find him to be the beneficiary of several lucky breaks. His departure from PayPal was less than stellar, for all the hoopla, TESLA has only three viable products (the S, the X and the 3) and we are waiting for SpaceX to deliver on that rocket.

Nothing wrong with that. Several of the big tech names received many breaks here and there. MS had no OS when Gates launched it (he took it from somebody else). Jobs' Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy when MS saved them (to avoid monopoly laws). GM and Chrysler were technically bankrupt after the financial meltdown of 2007. We will see where Musk leads TWT/X to, but if he manages to break it, it cannot be said that nobody saw it (I doubt it; it is simply too big and too ingrained in the modern way of communications).

[ti-amie]

billboard
@billboard@mastodon.world
AI-Generated Works Aren’t Protected By Copyrights, Federal Judge Rules

Check it out!
https://www.billboard.com/pro/ai-generated

[ponchi101]

Yes! Nobody thought of that (or I didn't). You have no copyrights because you are not a person.
Of course, they will simply find somebody to sign and claim they did it.