Over on 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh, Joe Giglio and Joe Ovies were talking about what a lot of people were on Monday. The afternoon duo discussed Elon Musk’s $44 billion take over of Twitter.
They agreed with a point made earlier in the day by Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. If you are in the sports media, you cannot leave the platform. Ovies though looked at it from a different perspective and wondered why Musk felt like he had to pay so much for the company.
“Twitter is not worth $44 billion, but Elon Musk so badly wants to tweet out whatever the hell he wants to tweet out that he just dropped $44 billion on it,” Ovies said. “And we’re like ‘why could he not just start up one of his own?’ Well, because there would be a graveyard of competitors that have come and gone.”
Joe Ovies pointed out that the media’s reliance on Twitter is what makes it valuable. He said that the reason President Donald Trump was so upset about being banned from the platform after the insurrection attempt on January 6 is that he knew all he had to do was tweet something and he could change the conversation on news networks.
The reality though is that while Twitter may be a good platform for exchanging information and making news, it isn’t a very healthy business.
“Twitter’s been trying to make money for fifteen years and they can’t keep up with Google or Facebook,” said Ovies. “They also have a user base problem. They’re not growing. I think in 2019, Twitter stopped reporting its monthly average because people just aren’t using the platform. They aren’t getting as many new people to use the platform.”
Ovies and Giglio did not have much in the way of suggestions for what Elon Musk should or shouldn’t do with Twitter. Ovies even admitted that his point may be valid, but Musk exists in a different world than he does. It may be a waste of time trying to make sense of the Tesla founder’s decision or motivation.
“I guess that’s what happens when you’re one of the richest guys in the world and you don’t agree with the terms of service. See Giglio, you and I, when we don’t agree with the terms of service on something we click the little box anyway and go ‘Fine! Sell all my information!’”
