Y Combinator partner criticizes Elon Musk’s Twitter strategy, contradicts Jeff Bezos’ business philosophy: “Taste is not transferable”

In a critique that challenges the business philosophies of tech giants Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk against each other Y Combinator Group partner David Lieb It has raised questions about Musk’s management Twitternow known as X.

what happened: Lieb’s comments, posted on the platform itself, challenge the notion that success in one industry guarantees success in another, specifically targeting Musk’s approach to social media.

Lieb cited Amazon.com Inc. Founder Bezos’ wisdom states: “As Bezos once said, taste cannot be transferred across domains.” This reference to Bezos, Musk’s longtime rival in both the space and technology sectors, sets the stage for a detailed analysis of Musk’s investments. Tesla Inc and SpaceX.

The Y Combinator partner didn’t pull any punches in his assessment of Musk’s performance on Twitter. “Elon’s great taste in electric cars and rockets gives him false confidence on social media.”

Lieb’s criticism went beyond Musk’s overall approach to the platform and targeted specific features and content strategies. He theorized about the platform’s content management: “I suspect that the Twitter team is intentionally not improving the Following feed so that the For You feed has better metrics.”

This requires a deliberate strategy to drive users to an algorithmically curated “for you” feed, potentially at the expense of user experience and content quality. Lieb didn’t mince words about his personal experience with the feature, stating, “I’m sure my metrics are better on the For You feed, but I really hate it. It’s mostly clickbait videos and Maga-Elon garbage.

The reference to “Maga-Ellon trash” refers to the perceived political leanings of the content promoted on the platform and addresses the ongoing debate about the role of social media in shaping political discourse.

Lieb’s comments come as Twitter has undergone significant changes under Musk’s leadership, including rebranding to X, overhauling content moderation policies, and changes to user verification processes. These changes have been met with different reactions from users, advertisers and industry analysts.

See also: Elon Musk paid $1 million for a 1976 car that inspired the design of the Cybertruck – the seller originally bought it for just $100 in a storage unit.

Why does it matter?: Lieb’s criticism comes amid a challenging period for Musk’s social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter. Recently, X released its first transparency report since the Mask acquisition, which revealed the suspension of 5.3 million user accounts and the flagging of 10.6 million posts for rule violations.

Additionally, X has experienced a significant drop in user engagement, particularly in the UK, where daily active users have dropped from 8 million to almost 5.6 million. The decline followed Musk’s controversial posts, such as “civil war is inevitable,” leading to a significant migration of users to platforms such as Bleusky.

In addition, The company’s meta platformPresident in Global Affairs, Nick Clegghas criticized X as a “small” platform that allows unregulated speech, pitting it against meta-platforms.

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disclaimer: This content is partially generated with the help of artificial intelligence tools and reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.