The Elon Musk/Mark Zuckerberg cage match explained

My money is on Zuck and I'm not happy about it.

Jun 23, 2023

Considering it’s June, which is typically a pretty quiet month for tech-related news—at least, post-WWDC—there’s actually a lot going on. It’s not that companies are making product announcements, but rather that they’re doing stuff that keeps making people angry (I’m looking at you Reddit). First, though, the most fascinating news comes from a pair of angry billionaires.

The short version is that Elon Musk appeared to challenge Mark Zuckerberg to a cage match in response to a Twitter user who posted about Meta’s plans to roll out its own text-based social media network, expected to be called “Threads.” The new service would be based on a user’s Instagram social graph.

Of course, with Musk, it’s hard to ever know whether anything he posts on Twitter is serious, or should be taken as random musings of a guy who appears to have a lot of extra time on his hands that he likes to spend using his new toy—the one for which he paid $44 billion. The entire thing probably would have faded into the pile of absurd things Musk tweets on a regular basis, until Zuckerberg posted a three-word response on his Instagram story.

“Send Me Location,” Zuck responded.

Alex Heath, of The Verge, confirmed that Zuck is serious:

Here we go.
After Elon Musk recently tweeted that he would be “up for a cage fight” with Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO shot back by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet with the caption “send me location.”
I’ve confirmed that Zuckerberg’s post on his Instagram account is, in fact, not a joke, which means the ball is now in Musk’s court. “The story speaks for itself,” Meta spokesperson Iska Saric told me.

My least favorite part of this story is that my money is on Zuckerberg, someone of whom I am generally not a fan. It’s true that Musk is taller and bigger than Zuck, but it’s also true that Facebook’s founder has been training and competing in Jujitsu for the past few years. Not only that, Zuck doesn’t really seem like the type that would accept a challenge like this unless he was very confident he would win.

Think about it, he had literally nothing to lose by just ignoring Musk’s “challenge” altogether. No one would have given it another thought. It would have just been another thing Musk tweeted. But, Zuckerberg didn’t let it slide by, he responded.

It probably doesn’t help that Musk has been basically taunting Zuckerberg since reports about Threads started to surface. That seems in line with how Musk usually responds to a perceived threat.

I don’t know if this is a thing that is going to happen, but Musk did respond by suggesting the Vegas Octogon. If it does happen, I get the sense most people would be pulling for Zuckerberg. Leave it to Elon Musk to make Mark Zuckerberg the hero of a story, for once.

The Reddit mess as a cautionary tail

This piece originally appeared in my Inc.com column.

The main takeaway from the Reddit debacle that has unfolded over the past few weeks is that if you give people a sense of ownership over a platform, they take it. That's a good thing if what you want is a powerful community where people are passionate about contributing and engaging with the platform.

Of course, if you try to exert some control or make big changes, don't be surprised if it doesn't go well. When people feel ownership of something, they generally don't react well to having it taken away. What you end up with is a mess. That's exactly where Reddit is now.

Interestingly, one of the best pieces of advice comes from an unexpected place. Christian Selig is the developer of Apollo, an app that is--at least until the end of the month--the most popular third-party Reddit client app. As a result of a series of changes Reddit has made over the past few weeks, Selig says he's shutting down Apollo. We'll get to his advice in a minute, but first, some context seems helpful:

As a business, Reddit has always been built on the idea that users will contribute content (for free), other users will volunteer to moderate and manage the platform (again, for free), and Reddit will monetize that content by showing ads to those users. On paper, it seems like a great business model, which is why it's surprising that Reddit says it's never been profitable.

Now, however, the company wants very much to go public, which is a very different thing than building a passionate community of users. The things a company prioritizes when it wants to convince investors to buy its shares are not the same things it prioritizes when it's trying to convince people to devote hours of unpaid time to help build a platform.

In Reddit's case, the company can't become profitable just by cutting costs. It already gets all of its content and moderation labor for free.

And, so, Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman has been on what seems like a mission to get rid of third-party apps, which users love but Reddit does not because the company doesn't make any advertising revenue from them. Technically, Huffman says Reddit isn't trying to kill third-party apps, and that the company is more than willing to work with them. But, by "work with them," what it seems like he means is that developers of those apps will have to pay a lot of money for access to Reddit's API.

So much money that the most popular apps have all said they will have to shut down instead. Selig has said that Reddit's new API pricing would cost him $20 million a year to keep Apollo running.

Selig has become something of a lightning rod. Huffman has referred to Selig and his app on a number of occasions, and not in a good way. The general message has been pretty clear: third-party apps aren't good for Reddit.

The problem is, people like those third-party apps. They might not be good for Reddit as a business, but they are an important part of Reddit the community, at least for its most engaged users.

Thousands of subreddits have protested the changes, first by making their communities private, effectively going dark. After facing threats from Reddit that moderators could be replaced, many subreddits reopened, but with alternative forms of protest.

For his part, Huffman continues to double down on both the API changes, as well as his belief that third-party apps do not add value to Reddit as a platform. The company has also made it clear to moderators that they can be replaced if protests continue.

On Monday, Selig posted a rebuttal to some of Huffman and Reddit's allegations about him, including that he had tried to blackmail the company. Near the end, Selig offers advice on how Huffman could have handled the situation differently and it's something every leader should take to heart.

"Apologize, recognize that the process was not handled well, and pledge to do better, talking and listening to developers, moderators, and the community this time," Selig wrote.

Or, put another way, "have a little humility."

United and flight cancelations

United is rolling out an update to its app that will make it easier to rebook when your flight is delayed or canceled. In the past, that meant standing in a long line at the airport or waiting on hold to be rebooked on another flight--hopefully, one that still made your trip worthwhile. Sometimes the next available flight isn't until the next morning, which means that instead of flying off to some fun location, you're spending the night in an airport hotel.

For an airline, those disruptions aren't just an inconvenience. If your business is flying millions of people around the world, delays and cancellations mean a lot of disappointed and frustrated travelers. Even though the disruptions aren't always your fault, they're definitely a big problem, and how you handle them matters.

I spoke with Linda Jojo, United Airlines' chief customer officer, about a new feature the company is rolling out to solve one of the worst parts of traveling.

"For the last several years, we've been pretty obsessed with making sure that our mobile technology--especially our app--are really helping people through their day of travel," Jojo told Inc. "What we've been focused on for the last little bit has been the reality that airline flights don't exactly go exactly the way they're supposed to. A lot of times it's the weather--a lot of times it's other things. And so how do we help customers through that?"

According to United, if your flight is delayed more than 60 minutes or canceled, you'll see a new feature in the app where you can select from alternate flight options. If you aren't using the app, you can access the same options from United's website. You'll also be able to track the progress of your bags to your new flight and access any hotel or meal vouchers you might be eligible for.

"When there's irregular operations or some type of flight disruption--either a long delay or a cancellation--we are in the app now doing automatic rebooking and giving you choices," says Jojo. "If you want to make a change to your flight or if you want to fly standby, we're just giving you more control when that disruption happens so that you can make a decision and get on your way."

United isn't the first airline to make it easy to change your travel plans within the app. I regularly fly Delta Air Lines, and any time there's a disruption, I'm automatically rebooked, and the app shows me other options in case I'd like to switch to a different flight. That said, the fact that you can now access things like hotel and food vouchers is super helpful. It's also a great example of making it easy as possible for your customers to recover when things go wrong.

Look, you can't control the weather, and you can't change the fact that sometimes parts on airplanes break. What you can do is change the experience your customers have when those things happen.

People understand that disruptions happen. They don't like having their flight canceled, but they appreciate feeling like the airline cares and is doing its best to take care of them. United's new in-app features are a great example. There's no magic button in the app that can speed up a maintenance repair or make the weather go away, but there is now a section that gives you options for getting wherever you're traveling.

Microsoft’s last stand

Microsoft is defending itself this week against the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction that would put a hold on its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the maker of games like Call of Duty and, well, Candy Crush. Many observers assume that if Microsoft loses in court this week, it will pay AB the $3 billion breakup fee and give up on the deal.

Of course, no one would be happier about that than Sony, the maker of the PlayStation 5. In fact, the testimony in the FTC case is almost entirely about a fight between the two companies including some juicy emails that show Sony isn’t being as honest about its reasons for opposing the deal as it would like you to think.

From Tom Warren at The Verge:

We’re only minutes into the FTC v. Microsoft hearing, and we’ve already had a bombshell revelation. Sony’s PlayStation chief, Jim Ryan, believed that Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard wasn’t about locking games as Xbox exclusives, according to a newly unsealed email. Microsoft counsel revealed the exchange between Ryan and Chris Deering, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, discussing the announcement of the deal last year.
“It is not an exclusivity play at all,” said Ryan. “They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with both Phil [Spencer] Bobby [Kotick] over the past day and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years to come.”
The surprise revelation runs counter to Sony’s arguments against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal and its filings with regulators. Sony has maintained it fears Microsoft could make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or even sabotage the PlayStation versions of the game.

It’s really no surprise to see big companies fighting like this—it’s just surprising to see them be so transparent about it in writing.

Undigital

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