The Text Social Wars Will Be Overrated
The video and audio wars have been unfolding for the past decade. In video, we have various battles being waged in paid, free, and algorithm-driven verticals. In audio, podcasts are being used as a way of improving music’s lack of attractive streaming economics for the distributor. These battles, including all the accompanying ups and downs, have been well-telegraphed and chronicled. Set within this content landscape, very little has been said about text-based platforms. That changed when Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Prior to Musk, Twitter was the perennial “how to fix” tech story. Pundits and analysts couldn’t resist sharing their ideas for how Twitter can grow its user base and generate more advertising revenue to better compete with its larger peers. The company’s ~225 million active users made it look niche compared to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, each with 2 billion users. None of the ideas worked. Twitter spent years floundering. It was Wall Street’s lukewarm reception of Twitter relative to its peers, in addition to Twitter not having a dual class share structure, that allowed Musk to step in and buy the company.
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