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Elon Musk didn’t kill Twitter

by Baker Graemy
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Elon Musk didn’t kill Twitter

Twitter is a disaster.

But you know that already.

Why is Twitter a disaster?

You probably think you know that, too: The usual suspect is Elon Musk, who has spent the year he’s owned Twitter doing his best to drive away users, advertisers, and any remaining sense of fun or utility the service used to have. (He’s also inexplicably renamed it “X,” which I’ll mention here solely to appease Vox’s excellent copy editors.)

But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Twitter’s history recently — because I’m the host of The Twitter Fantasy, Vox Media’s newest installment of its Land of the Giants podcast series, which launches today. And I don’t think Elon is the right answer for this whodunit.

Elon has definitely, demonstrably made Twitter worse. But I’d argue that Twitter’s present is a direct consequence of its shambolic origin story, where its co-founders and funders couldn’t decide what it ought to be. And that when they finally did decide, they set themselves up for eventual disappointment.

“Some people would look at it and say, ‘Oh God, this is like short-form email’ … ‘This is the future of communications’ … ‘This is the public square,’” says Betaworks CEO John Borthwick, who sold multiple startups to Twitter in its early years and had a ringside seat for its early growing pains. “Twitter didn’t actually state what they were. And so they could be many things to many different people.”

What Twitter and its investors finally did decide is that the company would be the next Facebook: a venture-backed social network fueled by its users’ content and supported by advertising. And that didn’t seem crazy in the late 2000s: The brief history of social networks up until that time was that each one was bigger and more valuable than the last, and Twitter was following Facebook, which was already supposedly worth billions.

The problem is that by the time Twitter went public in 2013, it was already clear that it wasn’t going to be Facebook. It wasn’t going to have anything like Facebook’s ginormous user base, and it didn’t have Facebook’s money-printing advertising machine. So if you wanted to invest in a fast-growing, money-making internet company, you invested in Facebook, not Twitter. Which meant Twitter’s stock languished while Facebook’s skyrocketed, and by the time Musk showed up and was willing to overpay for Twitter in 2022, no one had a better idea what to do with the company.

And that’s part of the story we tell in this episode, which you can listen to below.

It’s also not the whole story. And, I should point out, it’s not a story everyone agrees with. Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, for instance, thinks the key moment in Twitter’s history was its failed attempt to buy Instagram, months before Facebook actually did buy the startup for $1 billion.

If Twitter had pulled off the deal, Costolo told me, “we would’ve won… [and] that probably would’ve changed the course of the internet in some important way.”

Even still, Twitter managed — often in spite of itself — to be a fundamentally important company, and it’s not going away anytime soon. So this has been a tremendously entertaining podcast series to put together. I hope you like it, and even if you don’t I’d love to hear your feedback. Please listen above or on your favorite app, and drop me a line here with your questions and commentary.

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Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn

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Season 7 | Land of the Giants: The Twitter Fantasy will tell the story of Twitter (now X) at a crucial moment for the platform, exactly one year after Elon Musk took over. Hosted by Vox senior correspondent Peter Kafka, the four-episode season will survey the company’s outsize influence on politics and culture. How did Twitter become the internet’s town square, for better and for worse? And where is it heading, now that Elon’s in charge? rnrn

Season 6 | In Land of the Giants: The Facebook/Meta Disruption, senior reporters Shirin Ghaffary and Alex Heath bring us inside the company formerly known as Facebook during an unprecedented moment of transition. Now Meta, the company that defined social connection, community, and identity on the web has rebranded itself and is seeking to control the future of social experience in the metaverse. As its famous founder Mark Zuckerberg looks ahead, we ask how Facebook impacts our relationships, the social infrastructure of the web, and — even in a moment of vulnerability — still shapes lives across the globe? rnrn

Season 5 | In Land of the Giants: The Apple Revolution, Recode’s Peter Kafka explores the company that changed what a computer is — and then changed what a phone is. From its beginnings as a niche personal computer company, Apple became the preeminent maker of consumer tech products, a cultural trendsetter, and the most valuable company in the world. And along the way, it changed the way we live. New episodes come out on Wednesdays starting September 22, 2021. rnrn

Season 4 | Big Tech is changing every aspect of our world. But how? And at what cost? In this special four-part series Land of the Giants: Delivery Wars, Recode teams up with Eater to unbox the evolving world of food delivery. Find out how the rise of investor-backed third-party delivery apps has dramatically changed consumer behavior, helped create a modern gig workforce, disrupted small businesses, and potentially changed our relationship with food forever. From Recode, Eater, and the Vox Media Podcast Network, and hosted by Ahmed Ali Akbar.rnrn

Season 3 | In Land of the Giants: The Google Empire, Recode’s Shirin Ghaffary and Big Technology’s Alex Kantrowitz explore how a company that began with idealistic goals of creative experimentation and making useful products has evolved into a worldwide power with enormous impact on our lives. Google’s dominance in everything from search and online advertising to its YouTube and Android platforms gives it tremendous power and responsibility. But with multiple antitrust cases against it and its own employees rebelling against company decisions, is Google too big for its own good? rnrn

Season 2 | In Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect, Recode’s Peter Kafka and Rani Molla examine how Netflix got where it is today and whether or not it can maintain its streaming supremacy. Hear from Netflix’s founders and top executives as well as its competitors, critics, and more — covering everything from its unusual internal culture to its battle with Blockbuster, its disruption of Hollywood, and the upcoming streaming wars.

rnrn

Season 1 | In less than two decades, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos scaled an online marketplace for books into the world’s most valuable company. But at what cost? From Prime and HQ2, to the growing adoption of smart speakers and home cameras, to increasing scrutiny of Amazon’s power and its role in the changing nature of work, Land of the Giants: The Rise of Amazon addresses it all with detailed, thought-provoking, measured reporting from host Jason Del Rey.

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But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can’t rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on. rn
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rnFirst, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.rn
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rnSecond, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall. rn
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rnThat’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?“,”article_footer_header”:”Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?“,”use_article_footer”:true,”article_footer_cta_annual_plans”:”{rn “default_plan”: 1,rn “plans”: [rn {rn “amount”: 50,rn “plan_id”: 99546rn },rn {rn “amount”: 100,rn “plan_id”: 99547rn },rn {rn “amount”: 150,rn “plan_id”: 99548rn },rn {rn “amount”: 200,rn “plan_id”: 99549rn }rn ]rn}”,”article_footer_cta_button_annual_copy”:”year”,”article_footer_cta_button_copy”:”Yes, I’ll give”,”article_footer_cta_button_monthly_copy”:”month”,”article_footer_cta_default_frequency”:”monthly”,”article_footer_cta_monthly_plans”:”{rn “default_plan”: 0,rn “plans”: [rn {rn “amount”: 5,rn “plan_id”: 99543rn },rn {rn “amount”: 10,rn “plan_id”: 99544rn },rn {rn “amount”: 25,rn “plan_id”: 99545rn },rn {rn “amount”: 50,rn “plan_id”: 46947rn }rn ]rn}”,”article_footer_cta_once_plans”:”{rn “default_plan”: 0,rn “plans”: [rn {rn “amount”: 20,rn “plan_id”: 69278rn },rn {rn “amount”: 50,rn “plan_id”: 48880rn },rn {rn “amount”: 100,rn “plan_id”: 46607rn },rn {rn “amount”: 250,rn “plan_id”: 46946rn }rn ]rn}”,”use_article_footer_cta_read_counter”:true,”use_article_footer_cta”:true,”featured_placeable”:false,”video_placeable”:false,”disclaimer”:null,”volume_placement”:”lede”,”video_autoplay”:false,”youtube_url”:”http://bit.ly/voxyoutube”,”facebook_video_url”:””,”play_in_modal”:true,”user_preferences_for_privacy_enabled”:false,”show_branded_logos”:true}”>

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Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can’t rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

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