be valued upwards of $180 billion – which was its valuation when it raised capital in December 2020. That’s more than three times the total market capitalization of Twitter. Perhaps Vine was the one that got away – or maybe it was a bullet dodged. Maybe in a parallel universe where two-left-feet, can’t- walk-and-chew-gum-at-the-same-time Twitter didn’t get its grubby, value-destroying hands on Vine, the app would have failed anyway... and would still have been receiving its last rites, just when TikTok was in the cradle. Or perhaps Vine wouldn’t have been able to come up with an approximation of TikTok’s magic algorithm that makes the app so addictive and successful. And to be fair to Twitter, it’s not unusual for the guy who comes up with a fantastic, world-changing idea worth a herd of unicorns (“unicorn” is the venture-capital term used to describe a startup company that’s valued at more than $1 billion) to lose out on the garage full of Lambos. Often, it’s the people who improve upon the great idea – and learn from the mistakes of the guy who first came up with it – who become string-of-private-islands rich... in this case, TikTok. (Apple is renowned for applying its superior technology, design, distribution, and customer service to others’ ideas – say, the smartphone – and blowing it out of the water... and less famous for coming up with its own big ideas.) Still, Twitter is what may have been a gold nugget the size of Mars. Vine is a big what-if for Twitter. Most likely, a whiff.
TWITTER’S SOCIAL FAILURE Social media has the scope to create goodness and promote empathy by bringing together people with common interests – whether it’s in Far Side comic strips, recipes for spicy peanut butter, what’s going on in the neighborhood, or political inclinations. And it has tremendous scope to widen (and poison) the cleavages that divide people. If Twitter had had a CEO with his eye on the ball, perhaps today my son would be streaming his Fortnite exploits on Twitter instead of Twitch. Twitter would have a foothold in the $180 billion gaming industry (that’s more than movies and sports combined). Twitter has failed hard in moderating its platform to eradicate – or at least effectively limit – the toxicity that imbues so much of social media. As marketing professor, entrepreneur, and gadfly Twitter shareholder Scott Galloway wrote in a public letter to the board of Twitter... The outrage that unchecked social media imposes on our psyches is pulling at the fabric of our republic and threatens the foundations of our social order. Democracy relies on mutual understanding and respect. In addition to handling urgent political crises, Twitter’s CEO needs to scale back “mutual animosity” and help heal public discourse in the U.S...
American Consequences
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