On April 4, Tesla founder Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder after acquiring a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Subsequently, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that Musk will be appointed to the company’s board of directors, which means that Musk has become one of the decision makers of the social media giant Twitter in one fell swoop.
Musk’s entry into Twitter this time has long been a clue. He launched an opinion poll on March 25, asking netizens whether Twitter followed the principle of free speech, and more than 70% of the people chose “No”.
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
Musk has been impatient to bring some new changes after joining Twitter’s board, including the ability to urge Twitter to go live with editing tweets. As a supporter of the crypto industry and the godfather of Dogecoin (DOGE), Musk’s new identity will also bring more influence to the crypto market.
From April 4th to 6th, DOGE took the lead in giving feedback, rising from $0.145 to a maximum of $0.179, an increase of 23.4%. There is widespread speculation that Musk may push Twitter to accept DOGE as a reward. In addition, crypto industry practitioners expect Musk to push Twitter to transform into a Web3 social media platform, and return rights to users while maintaining freedom of speech.
Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder
Tesla founder Elon Musk is still rambling to expand his business map, and his Twitter entry has become another milestone in his career.
According to a document released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 4, Musk purchased 73.4869 million common shares of the listed company Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), holding a total of 9.2% of the shares, thereby becoming a Twitter the largest shareholder.
According to statistics, Musk’s acquisition cost about $3 billion, but this huge amount is a drop in the bucket for him. According to Forbes’ real-time rich list, as of April 5, Musk’s net worth was $302.1 billion, the highest on the list and more than $100 billion more than Amazon founder Bezos, who ranked second.
On April 5, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed the news on Twitter and said that Twitter will appoint Musk to the company’s board of directors. He believes that Musk will bring enormous value to the board. Musk then responded that he would accept the directorship and, along with the board, would bring huge improvements to Twitter in the coming months.
Musk’s acquisition continues his usual “madman” style. The rich and powerful he used the simplest and crudest way to become one of the decision-makers of the social media giant Twitter, and this result actually has a clue.
Elon Musk has launched a poll on Twitter
After the vote, Musk tweeted that, given that Twitter actually has the character of a public space, failure to abide by the principles of free speech fundamentally undermines democracy. “Do we need new social media platforms?”
As soon as the remarks came out, there was a lot of speculation that Musk would set up another social platform, but with the news of his acquisition of Twitter shares, everything was explained.
Although according to the rules of the Twitter board, Musk can only serve as a secondary director of Twitter until 2024, which means that his voice within Twitter is limited. However, Musk has quickly started “Twitter governance”. He launched a poll on “Do you want to edit the button” on Twitter this Monday. As a result, 73.6% of netizens chose “Yes”.
The next day, Twitter officials conveniently announced that they were indeed working on a secondary editing feature for tweets, revealing that it would be testing the feature on its paid service Twitter Blue in the coming months.
Obviously, after Musk entered Twitter, he couldn’t wait to bring some new changes. And as a proponent of the crypto industry and the “Godfather of Dogecoin,” it’s interesting to see how Musk’s new identity will affect the crypto market.
DOGE follows the “Godfather”, up 23% in three days
In the past year or so, Musk has repeatedly expressed his love for Dogecoin (DOGE) on Twitter, and Tesla once accepted users to use DOGE to buy cars. After suspending DOGE payments due to energy consumption issues, Musk announced in December last year that he would support DOGE in purchasing some of Tesla’s peripheral products.
It can be said that Musk’s personality in the crypto world has long been bound to DOGE, and when the news of him becoming a major shareholder of Twitter came out, DOGE started a wave of rising.
From April 4th to 6th, DOGE rose from $0.145 to $0.179, an increase of 23.4%. As of 5 p.m. on April 6, DOGE was quoted at $0.162, which is still more than 10% higher than the previous price.
Although Musk has not yet made it clear whether he will increase the use case of DOGE on Twitter, there has been a lot of speculation in the market, of which Twitter support for DOGE rewards is thought to be one of the first to be implemented.
In May last year, Twitter launched the Tip Jar feature, which allows users to tip their favorite creators. Users can use Tip Jar to connect their Twitter accounts with payment channels such as Cash App, Patreon, and PayPal to reward dollars. In addition, Twitter also supports users to connect Bitcoin wallets for tips.
After Musk became a Twitter director, Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus said he intends to tweet at least one per day with the hashtag #DogeTwitterTip Jar# to keep attracting The attention of the Twitter team drives Twitter to support DOGE tips. Before that, Musk has publicly supported DOGE many times, saying it is a better crypto asset than Bitcoin.
Due to Musk’s close association with DOGE, it wouldn’t be too surprising for Twitter to make any DOGE-related changes in the future, and someone has already posted a PS Twitter icon that marks Twitter’s iconic The bird LOGO was changed to the image of Dogecoin. However, DOGE is only the tip of the iceberg for the entire crypto market, and crypto industry practitioners also expect Musk to use Twitter to bring more transformative changes to the industry.
Netizens PS up Twitter icon into Dogecoin image
Starting a Web3 revolution around centralized Twitter is one of the grandest goals in the eyes of some crypto folks, and one that Musk will likely try to advance.
You must know that the most intuitive reason for Musk to become a major shareholder of Twitter is that he believes that Twitter restricts users’ freedom of speech, which reflects his rejection of “centralization of power”. According to foreign media reports, Musk also proposed an idea with Twitter CEO Agrawal and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, that is, through technical means, people can control themselves in the social media feed. What you see fundamentally shifts the power of social networks from giant companies to users.
Returning power to users is the main concept of Web3, and it is also an ultimate goal pursued by the crypto industry. Now that Musk is on Twitter, the outside world has seen the possibility of this giant company transforming into a Web3 social platform.
It is worth noting that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey himself is also a fan of the crypto industry. He calls himself a “Bitcoin believer” and has publicly expressed his willingness to spend more time in the crypto field. In November, Jack Dorsey also offered an interesting reason when he stepped down as CEO of Twitter, “I believe that Twitter is ready to move forward without the founder.”
This statement is very similar to the “handing over power to the community” that is often mentioned in the crypto field. Perhaps in the depths of Jack Dorsey’s heart, he also has expectations for Twitter’s decentralized transformation. However, as a listed company, Twitter’s development still faces the constraints of many shareholders and the SEC. This social media giant still faces many challenges to turn the rudder.