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Musk Reinstates Trump, as the Platform Keeps Running Despite Reduced Staff

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Musk Reinstates Trump, as the Platform Keeps Running Despite Reduced Staff

Yes, Trump is back on Twitter.

In what may be the ultimate singular example of the Elon Musk experience at the app, over the weekend, Musk reinstated the former President’s Twitter account, despite saying, just three weeks ago, that no decision on account reinstatements would happen until Twitter had formed a ‘content moderation council’ to rule on such moves.

Again, what Elon says and what he does are often very different, which is an important contextual note in analyzing his process.

So, to provide a full overview, back in October, shortly after Musk took over at the app, and amid a wave of calls for him to reinstate Trump, as Musk had said that he would, Elon explained that this wouldn’t be on the cards anytime soon.

Knowing that he had to maintain appeal with advertisers, who are still reportedly cutting ad spend, and taking a more cautious approach to such decisions, Musk seemed to be scaling back his ‘hardcore free speech’ ethos, in order to avoid putting prominent ad partners offside.

Shortly after, Musk met with those very advertisers to allay their concerns, and explained that Twitter was indeed working to implement a content council, featuring various experts and civil rights leaders. Musk noted then that it would take months to establish this group.

That seemed to give Musk some room to work on this new approach to moderation, and reduce his own, direct input in such rulings. Which, in some ways, is the best of both worlds – Musk can say that he stands for total free speech, maintaining his position with his supporters, while this new Council makes actual rulings, that are more in line with ad partner expectations.

That would likely have been a much safer way to move forward.

But then, Elon changed his mind.

On Friday, Elon sent out a tweet stating that it was ‘Freedom Friday’, before reinstating the previously banned accounts of The Babylon Bee, Kathy Griffin and Jordan Peterson.

He then launched Twitter poll asking Twitter users if they thought that he should reinstate the account of former President Trump.

The poll eventually garnered more than 15 million votes, with the ‘for’ just outweighing the ‘against’. And true to his word, Musk did then reinstate Trump’s account, with the former President now able to tweet once again from his @realDonaldTrump profile.

But he hasn’t, and he says that he won’t.

Trump Media & Technology Group has over $1 billion sunk into Trump’s own social media app Truth Social, with funding from a range Trump’s top supporters and advocates. A key proviso in that plan is that Trump has committed to posting exclusively Truth, even if his Twitter account were to come back. Trump could find a way around that, in posting to Twitter several hours after first posting in his app, but essentially, Trump’s pretty much locked into making Truth Social a thing, even with his beloved Twitter account now there and waiting for his attention.

So Trump might, eventually, start tweeting again, but right now he’s not. Which means that this was really more of an attention-grabbing move for Musk, once again, which also, as noted, contradicts his previous statements, and reinforces the fact that at Elon’s Twitter, anything could happen, at pretty much any moment.

That’s clearly helped Twitter gain more interest – Musk keeps saying that Twitter usage is hitting all-time highs, and thus far, it’s been able to keep running, despite that increased load – and despite Twitter’s headcount being cut by some 88% since Musk took over.

It’ll be interesting to see if the platform holds up, and while there have been reports of outages and other issues at the app, it is still working, which does, at least in a public-facing sense, add some weight to Musk’s approach in cutting staff to bare bones.

The big test will be the World Cup next week, which is expected to put increased demand on Twitter’s servers once again. And if the platform does hold up, with minimal impacts on performance, you can bet that other social apps will be reassessing Musk’s staffing approach, and considering if they need so many people to keep things running.

Which they might – but then again, 88% of Twitter’s staff are reportedly no longer working on the app. That’s gotta’ have some impact, right?

But to the point at hand, Musk’s decision to reinstate Trump is a perfect reflection of his approach in managing the app thus far. He says one thing, then does another; he appeals to advertisers to stay, then gives them more reason to be concerned about his approach.

In summary, who knows what’s coming next at Twitter, and if it’ll work. It could all come to a grinding halt this week, due to internal issues that are not being addressed, or Musk could keep finding new ways to generate headlines about himself and the app, which then keeps more people coming to it, which eventually makes it more of a magnet for ad dollars either way.

We’ll see what Musk has in store this week, in the lead-up to Thanksgiving.



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TikTok announces $1.5 bn deal to restart Indonesia online shopping business

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TikTok has around a billion montly users and its growth among young people far outstrips its competitors

TikTok has around a billion montly users and its growth among young people far outstrips its competitors – Copyright AFP/File SEBASTIEN BOZON

Chinese-owned short video app TikTok on Monday announced a $1.5 billion investment in GoTo group in a deal that would allow it to restart its online shop in Indonesia, the companies said in a statement.

Under the deal, TikTok Shop will be merged into GoTo’s Tokopedia, and TikTok will have a controlling stake in that entity.

“TikTok has committed to invest over US$1.5 billion in the enlarged entity over time, to provide future funding required by the business, without additional dilution to GoTo,” the Indonesian firm said.

“TikTok, Tokopedia and GoTo will transform Indonesia’s e-commerce sector, creating millions of new job opportunities over the next five years.”

“The strategic partnership will commence with a pilot period carried out in close consultation with and supervision by the relevant regulators,” GoTo said, adding that it expected the deal to close in 2024.

TikTok in October shut down its online shop in Indonesia, one of its biggest markets.

That came days after Southeast Asia’s largest economy banned sales on social media to protect millions of small businesses.

The regulation means social media firms cannot conduct direct transactions but only promote products on their platforms in Indonesia, the first country in the region to act against TikTok’s growing popularity as an e-commerce site.

Indonesia’s e-commerce market is dominated by platforms such as Tokopedia, Shopee and Lazada but TikTok Shop gained a significant market share since launching in 2021.

Indonesia, with 125 million users, is TikTok’s second-largest global market after the United States, according to company figures.

The Indonesian ban came after calls grew for regulation governing social media and e-commerce, with offline sellers seeing their livelihoods threatened by the sale of cheaper products on TikTok Shop and other platforms.

The regulation was yet another setback for TikTok, which has faced intense scrutiny in the United States and other nations in recent months over users’ data security and the company’s alleged ties to the Chinese government.

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TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

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TikTok spends $1.5B on Tokopedia JV to get around Jakarta social e-commerce ban

Just two months ago, ByteDance-owned TikTok abruptly closed its shopping platform in Indonesia to comply with surprise regulations from the Southeast Asian country’s government. Jakarta ordered social media companies like TikTok and Facebook to stop selling goods on their platforms, demanding a separation of social media and e-commerce services.

TikTok now seems to have found a way to revive its e-commerce dreams in Indonesia by spending billions to start a joint venture with Indonesian tech giant GoTo. On Monday, the two companies announced that TikTok Shop will now be available on GoTo’s Tokopedia platform.

“Tokopedia and TikTok Shop Indonesia’s businesses will be combined under the existing PT Tokopedia entity in which TikTok will take a controlling stake. The shopping features within the TikTok app in Indonesia will be operated and maintained by the enlarged entity,” TikTok said in a statement Monday.

TikTok will invest over $1.5 billion into Tokopedia, taking a 75% stake in the platform. GoTo will remain an ecosystem partner to Tokopedia and receive an “ongoing revenue stream from Tokopedia commensurate with its scale and growth,” but will not be required to continue funding the platform. Further funding from TikTok also won’t reduce GoTo’s remaining 25% stake.

Getting back into the Indonesian ecommerce market will be a win for TikTok. Indonesia, which is the platform’s largest market outside of the U.S., is key to Tiktok’s online shopping aspirations. In June, CEO Shou Zi Chew pledged to “invest billions in Indonesia and Southeast Asia over the next few years.”

ByteDance wants to replicate its Chinese e-commerce successaround the globe. Last year, consumers spent in China 1.41 trillion yuan ($196 billion) on products sold on Douyin, the version of TikTok for the Chinese market, The Information reported in January. ByteDance, through TikTok, is expanding its online shopping services in both Southeast Asia and the U.S. Yet the company is struggling to win over American consumers: The Information reported in August that U.S. shoppers are spending just $4 million a day, equivalent to $1.4 billion over a whole year, on goods sold on the social media platform. (TikTok officially launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. in September, though sellers have complained about a flood of low-quality products on the platform).

Before Indonesia imposed its ban in September, the country’s president, Joko Widodo, complained that social media platforms were threatening local micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. Government officials also accused TikTok of engaging in predatory pricing.

GoTo’s deal with TikTok means the Indonesian tech giant is giving up its majority ownership of Tokopedia . Tokopedia started in 2008 and grew to be one of Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platforms. The company merged with ride-hailing startup GoJek in 2021, becoming GoTo Group. The company debuted on Jakarta’s stock exchange in April last year.

Yet the company has struggled to wow investors since then. GoTo has yet to make a profit since becoming a public company. The tech firm reported 2.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($147 million) in net losses last quarter, significantly less than the 6.7 trillion rupiah ($428 million) it lost this time last year.

Investors do not appear to be thrilled by the news of GoTo’s TikTok partnership. Shares fell by over 19% by 2:30pm Indonesia time on Monday, erasing gains made late last week as rumors began to build of the new partnership.

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How to Train ChatGPT to Write in Your Brand’s Tone of Voice [Infographic]

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How to Train ChatGPT to Write in Your Brand’s Tone of Voice [Infographic]

Are you looking for ways to improve your ChatGPT output? Want to train it to write in a more unique tone of voice, in order to better suit your branding?

The Creative Marketer shares his ChatGPT prompt tips in this infographic. To enact these, add “Write like [INSERT CHARACTER]” at the start of your ChatGPT instructions.

TCM breaks things down into the following categories:

  • Innocent
  • Sage
  • Explorer
  • Ruler
  • Creator
  • Caregiver
  • Lover
  • Hero
  • Everyman
  • Magician
  • Jester
  • Outlaw

Check out the infographic for more information.

A version of this post was first published on the Red Website Design blog.

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