Wouldn't it be less trouble for Elon Musk to start his own social network site than trying to buy an existing one, and or an ISP, that is hostile to him?

Other sites have not been doing nearly as well as Twitter and it would also be a good investment. That you do not know the name of Trump’s site should give you an idea of how well it is doing. I know the name has “truth” in it. I have never been on Twitter or Facebook and would definitely not go to Trump’s site.

It’s not easy starting a new social media site and Musk is not only buying the Twitter platform but the Twitter name together with its 400 million users.

I’d think that buying an existing platform that everyone is familiar with would be a better investment than building your own.

Trump has tried building his own platform, “Truth Social”. I have no idea whether it is good or not as I do very little social network type things and as a result I have never been to his site.

Taking over Twitter has become a challenge for Musk. He owns 10% of their stock at this point. They offered him a seat on their Board in exchange for him signing a contract saying he’d NOT buy any more than 15%. He didn’t like that offer, so he declined it & tried to take over the WHOLE company in retaliation.

Musk could afford to start a new platform to compete with Twitter, but that could take a while to get up & going. Buying a functioning, well established platform is a MUCH wiser decision than starting from scratch. Personally, I don’t think that Musk would have a difficult time wooing people away from Twitter, but that could take months & he’s striking while the iron is hot!!!

trumps new website is called Truth Social. It has failed miserably!!! Even HE won’t use it. His investors are losing money big time. He didn’t put any of his own money into it so he’s got NO interest in how it turns out because he’s out of NOTHING. Once again he has scammed his loyal followers!!!

No. As Trump has now seen, it is incredibly difficult to break into an industry that has a well established leader. Especially when the ‘new’ social network has no credibility and is run as one person’s own personal mouthpiece.

Spending the time and effort to build a ‘new’ Twitter is money wasted.

Truth Social has had many probems even being able to get people to join; two weeks after launch there was a 500,000 person waiting list that was expected to take two months. And now the chief technical officer has quit.

Musk got impetous and backed himself into a corner. But once one has more than 5% of a company, SEC requirements on reporting positions make it difficult to buy more. It also makes it difficult for him to sell.

Musk can’t get financing to buy the balance of the company, which means he can say “I tried” and walk away.

When you’re buying a company like Twitter, you’re not buying the technology or the hardware, you’re buying the Customer Base. That’s the only thing that has any real value. Musk has been thwarted on his initial attempt to buy Twitter but he doesn’t strike me as the type of person to throw in the towel at the first sign of adversity. He may be able to put together a Cabal of three or more other investors to gain control of the company. Or he may just force a share holder’s vote on his existing offer. You won’t get rich betting against Musk.

@Jaxk I pretty much agree with everything you said, but I will add, as someone who has followed Musk closely for many years (and made good money doing so), that Elon tends to be at his worst when his public ego gets involved. He’s at his best when he is focused on pushing a team forward to make something incredible the world has never seen and he gets his big “Steve Jobs” moment to lift the curtain. But when he gets into public spats over social media, the stock price in Tesla tends to fall, not rise. He is also objectively bad about forecasting timelines. In his defense, this is a very difficult thing to do (we don’t know what we don’t know after all).

I wonder, if Elon did get Twitter, if many (perhaps on the Left) would leave, leaving it to be a right wing echo chamber.

I think he may be trying to shed light on a board that is beginning to be overrun by members of the World Economic Forum, a common theme in the major corporations around the world. 5 of the 11 members are affiliated with the World Economic Forum.

@jca2 Which would be ironic, because much of the right ultimately doesn’t want that. That’s part of why these “right only” social media platforms aren’t taking off. It’s no fun “owning the libs” if there are no libs around to be owned. Ultimately they want people on the left to listen to their rants and they want to be mainstream.

@Demosthenes: yeah, like some right wingers here on Fluther, who love to stir the shit and throw out the same tired arguments.

In a word no.
Wouldn’t it be easier for you to buy your own cattle to have a hamburger?