Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and business magnate, continues to make headlines with his groundbreaking ventures. From SpaceX to Tesla, Neuralink to The Boring Company, Elon Musk's name is synonymous with innovation and disruption. With his charismatic personality and visionary ideas, Elon Musk has captured the world's attention and admiration. Whether it's his ambitious plans for colonizing Mars or his advancements in renewable energy, Elon Musk's influence extends far beyond the realms of traditional entrepreneurship. As Elon Musk continues to push the boundaries of technology and reshape industries, his name has become synonymous with ingenuity and a driving force behind the future of innovation.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, took a jab at Elon Musk and announced the development of a new app that will serve as a rival to Twitter. During a company-wide meeting, Meta teased the app, internally known as Project 92, and it is speculated to be named Threads upon its release. The chief product officer of Meta, Chris Cox, led the demonstration of the upcoming app, referring to it as their response to Twitter. Cox also took a dig at Musk by stating that the rival app will be "sanely run," indirectly criticizing Musk's handling of Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion in October and promoted as a platform where all voices are heard.
According to The Verge, during the company-wide meeting, Chris Cox stated that they have been receiving feedback from creators and public figures who are interested in a platform that is well-managed and trustworthy. He emphasized that the goal of developing the app, known as Project 92, which started in January, was to provide creators with a secure and reliable space to build and expand their audiences. Cox highlighted the app's focus on safety, user-friendliness, and dependability.
Cox further mentioned that several prominent figures, including Oprah, the Dalai Lama, and DJ Slime, have already expressed their commitment to using the app. Meta aims to make the app available as soon as possible, he added.
Reportedly, Project 92 leverages Instagram's account system to automatically populate users' information. It also integrates with ActivityPub, allowing users of the new app to carry their accounts and followers to other apps supported by the decentralized social networking protocol.
The integration of Project 92 with the decentralized social networking protocol ActivityPub sets it apart as a decentralized platform, similar to Mastodon, a rival to Twitter. Mastodon, which launched in April, supports independent servers that can establish their own rules regarding content moderation.
What makes Project 92 unique is that it will be the first interconnected platform of its kind within Mark Zuckerberg's portfolio, which includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The upcoming app could have an advantage over Twitter due to its partnership with Instagram, which boasts over 1 billion users, according to Statista. This association could provide Project 92 with the opportunity to leverage the extensive user base of the popular photo-sharing app.
On the other hand, Twitter currently has around 360 million users and has faced various controversies since Elon Musk took charge. Musk's actions, such as reducing the company's workforce and implementing changes that affected advertisers, have caused dissatisfaction among high-profile users, some of whom considered the pay-to-play feature for verified accounts to be problematic.
Since April, Twitter has made changes to its verification process, requiring users to pay a monthly fee to retain the blue checkmark that previously distinguished them from impersonators. The cost of maintaining the verified badge now ranges from $8 per month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 per month for organizations.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has recently announced his successor, Linda Yaccarino, who was recruited by NBCUniversal. Yaccarino's primary responsibility will be to boost the company's ad revenue, which has reportedly declined by 59% this year. She will face the challenging task of meeting sales projections, a goal that the struggling company has often failed to achieve, sometimes falling short by up to 30%.
Yaccarino assumed her role earlier than expected, starting on Monday, and has already begun assembling a trusted team, starting with Joe Benarroch, a former colleague who has taken on a senior business operations position.
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