Then, Musk took a U-turn and started reinstating blue ticks for some users, especially the ones with 1 million or more followers. However, noted personalities like Chrissy Teigen and Mark Hamill haven’t got back their blue ticks back till now, despite meeting the follower count criteria, while the accounts of deceased celebrities like Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant are still online with the restored verification badges.

However, today’s IF Insight article is all about Bluesky, a social media app backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

What’s The News Now?

Bluesky has been launched for Android users. The project, which made its debut in 2019, works on an open social media protocol (an ecosystem which allows everyone to collaborate to create one social network that is decentralized, like email), and has been famous among Apple users as well, registering some 245,000 iPhone downloads. Bluesky got more traction in April 2023, the same month which also saw the confusion over Twitter Blue Tick reigning supreme.

As per Data.ai, Bluesky has now started inviting users from its waiting list, which numbered over a million people since October 2022, to test the app’s beta version.

Bluesky project leader Jay Graber has described the app as “a very simple microblogging format to show how Twitter could have been built” on its protocol. Its features are very similar to Twitter, with 300-character posts and replies, and the ability to repost and share photos and text. Although the app has a slow loading speed on its Android version, it offsets the drawback with a user onboarding feature much quicker and smoother than Mastodon, another free and open-source social media software.

Bluesky will allow its users to use their web domain address as their handle on the service, along with a self-verification option and the freedom to move to a different server/service with the same username, features which will clearly make the app an attractive destination for disenchanted Twitter users.

Jack Dorsey once commented that conventional social media platforms should not have so much power “in terms of deciding which users and communities could engage in speech and who would be responsible for moderating that content.”

It seems like Bluesky is going to follow this principle in the coming days.

Despite Bluesky being an invitation-only app as of now, it won’t prevent users from inviting others to join the social media network. Till last year, one had to get a code from one of the developers working on Bluesky, for the above purpose.

The app’s user base has accelerated from about 1,000 to 2,500 new members a day, ever since its Android launch, thus surpassing a total of 33,000 users in the third weekend of April 2023. Usernames can be tied to web domain names, and will serve as a verification form. Jay Graber’s username is @jay.bsky.team, and anyone linked to bsky.team can be considered an official member of the Bluesky team.

Bluesky has problems. One of them is that the tool doesn’t support hashtags. To address this, the portal is reportedly taking the help of noted American film personality and self-proclaimed hashtag inventor Chris Messina. Then there are concerns about Bluesky’s content moderation and safety policies as well, especially related to bots.

Nostr: Another Bet From Jack Dorsey

Like Bluesky, Nostr too works on a decentralised social media protocol, apart from sharing another similarity of being backed by Jack Dorsey.

Bluesky is a proof-of-concept front-end to the underlying Authenticated Transfer Protocol, which promotes social media decentralisation. The app is intended to form the basis of a broad network of interoperable apps and services. Nostr has become that framework under which over a dozen apps and other services already operate.

Nostr, whose acronym stands for “notes and other stuff transmitted by relays,” has an ecosystem based on public and private key cryptography, apart from carrying huge storage of technical knowledge. The app has been popular among technical communities, whereas Bluesky has earned a more diverse mix of users.

Nostr is much larger than Bluesky and the Authenticated Transfer Protocol, as it contains a variety of apps. It reportedly has as many as 16 million users, apart from 780,000 daily active users.

On Nostr, you have public keys interacting with the AT Protocol. While a user might have dozens or hundreds of such keys, an “Interaction Event” on the app can be anything from a posted message to a query, ping, or automated action.

Conclusion

Jack Dorsey launched Bluesky in November 2022, with the aim of “giving the creators independence from platforms and developers, as well as the freedom to design, allowing users to customize their experience by giving them control over their algorithms”.

Things have changed since then. While Bluesky has its own fair share of issues, it has evolved like anything in the last six months and along with Nostr, looks poised to change the social media game with a decentralised protocol.

Bluesky started as a Twitter spinoff in 2019 and now is challenging the Elon Musk-led portal. The result of this warfare will decide whether the prospect of a federal social media network will be realised in the coming years or not.

The post IF Insights: With Bluesky and Nostr, decentralised social media protocol is here appeared first on International Finance.

“Block Inc., formerly known as Square Inc., is a USD 44 billion market cap company that claims to have developed a “frictionless” and “magical” financial technology with a mission to empower the “unbanked” and the “underbanked”,” Hindenburg said in a note published on its website.

“Our 2-year investigation has concluded that Block has systematically taken advantage of the demographics it claims to be helping,” it remarked further.

Decoding Hindenburg’s Allegations Against Block

“The magic behind Block’s business has not been disruptive innovation, but rather the company’s willingness to facilitate fraud against consumers and the government, avoid regulation, dress up predatory loans and fees as a revolutionary technology, and mislead investors with inflated metrics,” the research firm said.

Hindenburg further stated that its report had involved dozens of interviews with former employees, partners, and industry experts, extensive review of regulatory and litigation records, and US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and public records requests.

Shares of Block fell 18% in premarket trading after the publication of the report, which further noted that the payment firm’s “Wild West” approach to compliance made it easy for threat actors to “mass-create accounts for identity fraud and other scams, then extract stolen funds quickly.”

“Even when users were caught engaging in fraud or other prohibited activity, Block blacklisted the account without banning the user. A former customer service rep shared screenshots showing how blacklisted accounts were regularly associated with dozens or hundreds of other active accounts suspected of fraud,” Hindenburg remarked.

As per the research firm, Block fuelled its profitability by avoiding a key banking regulation meant to protect merchants. The law mentioned here is the one passed by the United States Congress which caps “Interchange fees” (money charged to merchants for accepting the use of payment cards) charged by lenders having over USD 10 billion in assets. Block had USD 31 billion in its assets base, but didn’t follow the banking regulation.

The Hindenburg report also accused the Jack Dorsey-led company of not revealing its business economics, despite a 2022 Credit Suisse study flagging the payment app’s trade practices.

“We also believe Jack Dorsey has built an empire—and amassed a USD 5 billion personal fortune—professing to care deeply about the demographics he is taking advantage of. With Jack Dorsey and top executives already having sold over USD 1 billion in equity on Block’s meteoric pandemic run higher, they have ensured they will be fine, regardless of the outcome for everyone else,” Hindenburg said.

Ever since the report’s publication, Jack Dorsey’s fortune plunged by USD 526 million. Not only had the former Twitter CEO faced his worst single-day decline since May 2022, but his current worth also stood at USD 4.4 billion after the 11% drop, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

What Is Hindenburg Research?

Hindenburg, founded by Nathan Anderson in 2017, focuses on activist short-selling. The organisation, named after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, the firm generates public reports on alleged corporate frauds via its website. Companies targeted by Hindenburg include Adani Group, Nikola, Clover Health, Kandi and Lordstown Motors, with Jack Dorsey’s Block now entering the dreaded hit list.

Hindenburg generally gets involved in short-selling (buying back securities at a lower price after the drop in stock prices, then returning these securities to the lender, with the short-seller pocketing the difference amount between the purchase price and the selling price as a profit).

It prepares its investigation report on a target company in six/more months by going through its public records and internal corporate documents, apart from talking to the employees.

The report is then circulated to Hindenburg’s limited partners, who, together with Hindenburg, take a short position in the target company. Hindenburg also takes profits if the target company’s share price declines.

Hindenburg Vs Corporates

Hindenburg released a report in 2020 September titled “Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America”.

The study called out the alleged malpractices by the heavy-duty commercial battery-electric vehicle maker leading up to its proposed partnership with General Motors.

After the report came out, Nikola Founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton resigned, and the report got traction across the global media. Nikola also faced probes after the study came out.

In June 2020, Hindenburg wrote about WINS Finance, whose Chinese subsidiary was subject to an asset freeze, which had not been disclosed to the US investors. It also pointed out that WINS’ parent, which owned 67.7% of WINS’ equity, had already been declared insolvent in China with no disclosure to its American investors. In October of that year, NASDAQ delisted WINS.

In the same year, Hindenburg reported about the corporate malpractices of US-based entertainment company Genius Brands, which was trading at about USD 6.86 per share in the first half of 2020. By the July end, the report resulted in the company’s shares trading at USD 1.50, a decline of almost 80%.

Throughout 2020, the research firm wrote about irregularities committed by China Metal Resources Utilization, SC Worx, Predictive Technology Group and HF Foods, resulting in these businesses facing regulatory heat, apart from taking massive market beatings.

From 2016 to 2019, Hindenburg also exposed malpractices of SmileDirectClub, Bloom Energy, Yangtze River Port & Logistics, Liberty Health Sciences, Aphria, Riot Blockchain, PolarityTE, Opko Health, Pershing Gold and hedge fund RD Legal, which opened hornet’s nests one after another in the corporate world.

Hindenburg Is Under Regulatory Lens Now

In 2022, the United States Department of Justice and other federal bodies initiated a probe against dozens of short-selling investment and research firms since 2021, with the focus being on the potentially illegal trading tactics applied by these ventures.

Since 2021, authorities have been collecting information on nearly 30 short-selling firms, as well as three dozen individuals. As per the Wall Street Journal, some of the alleged illegal trading tactics employed by these firms included “spoofing” (a method of flooding the market with fake orders to initiate stock price volatility) and “scalping” (where activist shareholders cash out positions without disclosing it).

Those being probed are Muddy Waters’ Carson Block, Andrew Left, the founder of Citron Research, Melvin Capital and founder Gabe Plotkin, Nate Anderson and Hindenburg Research, along with Sophos Capital Management and Jim Carruthers.

Image Credits: TED

The post IF Insights: Jack Dorsey’s Block, Hindenburg Research & activist short-selling appeared first on International Finance.

The Tesla CEO expressed a desire to take over Twitter for the first time through a tweet in 2017.

Five years later, in March 2022, he championed the idea of free speech absolutism and openly criticised Twitter. Later, a security filing showed that Elon Musk was Twitter Inc.’s biggest shareholder, with a stake of 9%, and he was asked to join the board of directors. He declined it later. Soon after, he made a deal to buy the micro-blogging platform for USD 54.20 per share or USD 43 billion. A deal Twitter was happy about.

The billionaire later backed out of the agreement, stating that more than 5% of all Twitter users were bots. Twitter took the Tesla CEO to court, and Elon Musk eventually bought it for the original price, staking Tesla shares.

Immediately after taking over the social media platform, Elon Musk fired the then-Twitter leadership, including CEO Parag Agarwal, along with 50% of the employees. His policy changes have been considered erratic so far (Twitter Blue has been the biggest example of that). While he dubbed himself the “chief twit” and tweeted, “The bird is free,” the reality is that the company is in the doldrums. Its financial health has gone downhill and the staff firings have taken a toll on Twitter’s operational capabilities, with the frequent news of the micro-blogging platform crashing occupying the headlines.

Let’s Talk About The Significant Changes

The app has been significantly plagued with bugs since Elon Musk’s takeover. Not only has the micro-blogging platform been facing glitches (lasting for hours), but Tweetdeck, a significant user favourite social media dashboard for Twitter, also looked haywire. Users are unable to send messages, make tweets, or follow new accounts.

The integrity of Twitter’s primary product is compromised by Elon Musk’s irrational moves, alienating a sizable portion of users. He has reportedly reinstated the accounts of thousands of previously suspended users, including neo-Nazi and QAnon accounts, ‘in the spirit of free speech’.

Researchers have informed the New York Times about the renewed dominance of hate speeches on the micro-blogging platform, including a more than 200% jump in racial slurs from Elon Musk’s takeover until December 2022.

In terms of products, the Twitter CEO has hurried through initiatives that have wreaked havoc on the platform.

Twitter Blue, Elon Musk’s most well-known product and a premium service that allowed users to purchase a verification badge, needed a better rollout at first.

Elon Musk, who has a history of hatred against the mainstream media, presented Twitter Blue as a method to deny “elites” like journalists and activists certain advantages on the site, like checkmarks, unless they paid up.

The poorly planned modifications to Twitter’s verification rules ultimately resulted in a spammer invasion as freshly verified accounts exploited their checkmarks to pass off fake versions of well-known individuals, including Elon Musk.

Before ultimately debuting in December 2022, the release of ‘Twitter Blue’ was postponed twice. Tweetbot and other third-party applications that enhanced users’ experiences on the platform were suddenly prohibited by Twitter.

Even though Twitter has promised developers a revised, premium version of its API, its abruptly blocked access has damaged its reputation with outside developers, whose add-on applications have improved the site.

More than half of Twitter’s workforce has been let go by Elon Musk, leaving a shortage of staff to deal with the fallout. This includes groups responsible for bug fixes, content control, and wooing sponsors.

On the commercial front, Elon Musk’s leadership has put Twitter’s primary source of income in jeopardy as 500 high-profile advertisers have suspended their campaigns since the billionaire took over the leadership role, mainly due to worries about his general unpredictability and the rise in what researchers call an “unprecedented” rise in hate speech on the platform.

According to Reuters, between the time Elon Musk took over and the end of 2022, Twitter’s top 30 advertisers reduced their expenditure by an average of 42%.

Around 180,000 US users, or less than 0.2% of monthly active users, are paying for Twitter subscriptions as of mid-January 2023, according to a recent Information report.

While Elon Musk asserted in November that Twitter’s user base was at an all-time high, independent evidence refutes that assertion.

According to the data analytics company SimilarWeb, Twitter enjoyed a rise in traffic before Elon Musk seized control in March 2022. The number of visitors to the site decreased year over year from 4.7% in November 2022 to -2% in January 2023.

Is The Bird Free?

On an ideological level, Elon Musk’s Twitter has repeatedly fallen short of upholding its commitment to free speech, starting with the CEO suspending accounts of comedians like Kathy Griffin (who made fun of him) and forbidding users from discussing Twitter’s rivals, such as the decentralised social network Mastodon, on the platform (after a flurry of criticism, Elon Musk reversed the policy).

Even some well-known individuals who backed Elon Musk’s free speech stance, like independent journalist Bari Weiss, have changed their minds because Elon Musk banned numerous prominent journalists who had opposed him.

In April 2022, former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey endorsed Elon Musk as his replacement and declared that Elon Musk is the “singular solution” he believes can run Twitter and “extend the light of consciousness.” However, in recent months, Jack Dorsey has changed his mind and begun to openly criticise Elon Musk’s leadership, including all the current technical issues.

Conservative public personalities and politicians are the primary demographic that appears to embrace the new Twitter staunchly.

Elon Musk has become a hero in right-wing circles after he restored many suspended accounts of right-wing political figures and provocateurs, including shock jock Andrew Tate, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and former United States President Donald Trump.

He has even had Republican-led legislation drafted in his honour that would require the Department of Justice to reveal the amount of money it spends on big tech companies.

In addition, Elon Musk has won the admiration of conservatives for his efforts to expose instances of purported liberal bias in Twitter’s old guard, most notably with the release of the “Twitter Files,” a collection of documents that reveal how Twitter made decisions about its content policies with input from US politicians and government organisations.

Even if Elon Musk’s conservative supporters adore how he manages Twitter, they won’t be much use if the app is buggy and people stop using it completely.

Elon Musk, who needs a successful, profitable app to recoup the USD 13 billion he borrowed from creditors to purchase Twitter, won’t either.

The billionaire recently stated his intention to hire a new CEO by 2023-end. Even if the plan gets executed, the new leadership will have a mountain to climb, if we take Twitter’s rising debt and app glitches alone into consideration.

The post IF Insights: How does Twitter fare under Elon Musk? appeared first on International Finance.

After two years of COVID-19 lockdowns, many companies have adopted permanent “flexible working”. Working remotely has pros and cons, including saving time and money on commutes and improving work-life balance.

Here are the finest suggestions for remote working from successful business leaders for people struggling to establish an effective Work From Home practice.

Use Buffer Time Like LinkedIn Executive Chairman Jeff Weine
LinkedIn Executive Chairman Jeff Weiner understands healthy work practices. He has long advocated “buffer time”—brief breaks in your schedule between meetings or other high-intensity activities. With the rise of remote work, Jeff Weiner has stressed the significance of brief, scheduled breaks to promote productivity and well-being. So make sure you set out real buffer time to catch your breath, exercise, or do whatever relaxes you.

Reflect On The Day Like Zoom CEO Eric Yuan
Zoom is most likely the most closely associated with Work From Home. Eric Yuan, the company’s founder and CEO, believes that hybrid work, a combination of remote and office-based labour, would fundamentally change people’s working patterns. Eric Yuan always takes 15 minutes in the evening to review the day’s successes and failures. Eric Yuan calls this time “thinking meditation” and uses it to think about how he may improve as a leader.

Get Out Like YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki
Some Work From Home workers are easily sidetracked, but others need the structure of an office day to leave their computers. Working remotely, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki benefits from walking outside twice daily. I need to stroll or exercise outside the house. But, she continued, “I’m also trying to remember that this will end, that we will get through it. As leaders, we all experience crises and know the end.”

Schedule & Organise Like Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates
Bill Gates is a prominent advocate for Work From Home culture following the pandemic. Bill Gates has praised remote working but also noted its drawbacks and concerns for workers and students. Bill Gates focused on remote login discipline and organization on Code Break. Bill Gates said, “I do think that having a new normal pattern and trying every day to stick to that is pretty helpful. I do think that discipline is pretty important.”

Exercise & Meditate Like Square CEO Jack Dorsey
Square CEO Jack Dorsey worked from home at least two days a week before the outbreak. Jack Dorsey meditates before high-intensity interval exercise when working from home. A seven-minute workout wakes up the body before work. No personal trainer. Gym? Not me. A chair, a wall, and body weight are all I need to work out daily.

The post Jack Dorsey to Bill Gates: Must know habits of extraordinary business leaders appeared first on International Finance.

Jack Dorsey recently tweeted, “No one knows anything,” in an apparent indication to the social media platform.

The billionaire responded to it by saying, “Magic knows it all.”

The first two weeks of Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter have been characterized by quick, drastic changes and subsequent volatility.

Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey got into a fight recently over the “Birdwatch” function.

Elon Musk stated that Twitter must develop into the most reliable news source.

“Who is accurate?” asked Jack Dorsey.

The two giants also collided on the Twitter function that the Tesla CEO had rebranded as “community notes.”

However, Jack Dorsey admitted to hastily broadening the micro-blogging platform.

“Past and existing Twitter employees are hardworking and tenacious. No matter how severe the situation, they will always find a way. I am aware that many are upset with me. I built the company too quickly, which is my fault and why everyone is in this predicament. I’m sorry about that,” tweeted Jack Dorsey.

“Everyone who has ever worked on Twitter has my gratitude and love. I understand that I don’t expect that ever to be the case,” he added.

Jack Dorsey ended his formal affiliation in May, 2022 with the company he co-founded in 2006, as he resigned from the Twitter board.

Since 2007, he has served as a director. Most recently, from mid-2015 to 2021, he served as the CEO of the social networking platform.

The post Elon Musk responds to Jack Dorsey’s tweet appeared first on International Finance.

The Jack Dorsey-found platform saw the firing of nearly 50% of its 7500 staff globally after Elon Musk took over the reins. The Tesla CEO defended the move, saying that the company was losing over USD 4 million daily.

However, some of these employees were again called back to their offices, as the micro-blogging platform said these staffers were either fired by error or they are “way too essential” for the company’s transformation goals.

Now, amid all this chaos, Jack Dorsey launched his new social media platform called “Bluesky”, aimed at “giving the creators independence from platforms and developers, as well as the freedom to design, allowing users to customize their experience by giving them control over their algorithms”.

Although Bluesky is still in its nascent stages of development, it saw a spike in its subscription figures, as more than 30,000 people signed up there within 48 hours.

Jack Dorsey also hogged the limelight recently for his newly-launched business app “Square Financial Services”. And with Twitter coming under intense scrutiny over its policy changes, pundits will be keeping a sharp eye on Jack Dorsey’s upcoming moves.

Will Bluesky see Elon Elon Musk vs Jack Dorsey affair?
Apart from going into whiplash firing against Twitter employees, the Elon Elon Musk-led social media platform has come under media scrutiny due to its new subscription policy, dubbed as ‘Twitter Blue’, under which the users can sign up to the micro-blogging platform and get the much sought after ‘Blue Tick’ or the verification badge, in exchange of paying USD 7.99 per month. This feature was earlier available only to influential individuals (politicians, journalists, celebrities and sports persons), who were required to prove their identities while applying for the verification badge.

The policy change has fuelled worries over the rise of impersonation accounts (parody accounts) on Twitter, just ahead of the crucial US midterm elections. While actor Mark Ruffalo and activist-politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Elon Musk on the micro-blogging platform, Jack Dorsey too opposed the Tesla CEO’s claims of making Twitter the “most accurate source of information about the world.” He also expressed his anger over Elon Musk renaming Birdwatch, Twitter’s initiative against disinformation, as Community Notes.

Bluesky, originally created in 2019, had the goal of coming up with a decentralized protocol, which would operate in sync with Twitter and other social media networks.

Even though Twitter has been rammed by one after another controversy after Elon Musk’s takeover, Bluesky remained confident about its future as it said, “Twitter’s funding of Bluesky is not subject to any conditions except one: that Bluesky is to research and develop technologies that enable open and decentralized public conversation.”

In April, it released the initial parts of its flagship ‘AT Protocol’, and the latest news suggests that it has also opened a waitlist for a decentralized social media app. Headed by software engineer Jay Graber. Bluesky has got USD 13 million funding from Twitter so far. Jack Dorsey and the inventor of XMPP protocol Jeremie Miller are on the project leadership team as well as the start-up to go for a private beta solution.

Recently, talking about its roadmap, the company said, “The next step is to start testing the protocol. Distributed protocol development is a tricky process. It requires coordination from many parties once a network is deployed.”

While Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk share a common goal in the form of decentralization, Bluesky caters to the concept of “algorithmic choice” or competing for social media moderation algorithms. As per an article from ‘The Verge’, Jack Dorsey, in a text message to the Tesla CEO, even regretted not creating a communication protocol on Twitter to ward off any censorship concerns.

Bluesky is aggressively working towards the concept of ‘federalized social media’, where algorithms will reign supreme, in terms of controlling the users’ data. The consumers will be able to use a single profile across several social media platforms. There were reports that stated that Jack Dorsey pitched the Bluesky-related ideas to Elon Musk at the beginning of 2022, apart from making Twitter an open-source protocol.

However, one must accept the fact that Bluesky is at the nascent stages, with Jack Dorsey holding the aces now. If Elon Musk remains true to the former Twitter CEO’s vision, Twitter will become the client service under Bluesky, with decentralization ruling the roost.

Elon Musk takes up ownership of a loss-making social media platform and despite having dreams of making it an open-source platform, he may have to concede the algorithm controls to Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky, which will affect the micro-blogging platform’s advertising revenue. Elon Musk has the vision of making Twitter a WeChat-like social media platform with payment facilities. Bluesky has an answer for it as well, but after the recent Elon Musk vs Jack Dorsey exchanges on Twitter, things may change in the coming days.

Elon Musk’s moves like firing Twitter employees en masse, and making some of the senior staffers work 12 hours daily a week, don’t match with Jack Dorsey’s corporate ethics either, as the tech billionaire’s other venture, Square earned the praise in 2020, when they let their employees do permanent work from home. Plus Twitter, under Jack Dorsey and his successor Parag Agarwal, was known for its open corporate culture.

Even if Elon Musk comes on board, big companies, which withdrew their advertisements from Twitter after the Tesla CEO’s takeover, may not fund Bluesky too, given the rise of hateful comments on the micro-blogging platform has been witnessing post takeover by Tesla CEO.

And yes, if there is a fallout between Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, expect the latter to go alone and make Bluesky the next big thing on social media. Jack Dorsey’s track record as a tech entrepreneur gives him the edge here. Let’s discuss his rise from a teenage open-source software maker to a 45-year-old successful entrepreneur.

Tracing the early journeys of Jack Dorsey, the tech geek
The 45-year-old American internet entrepreneur and Philanthropist, showed his interest in tech at an age of 14, as he created a series of open-source software to aid the concept of dispatch logistics (logistics involving courier companies and cab aggregators). Some of it remained in use till 2007. When he dropped out of New York University in 1999, before completing his graduation, he came up with the idea of introducing a micro-blogging platform.

Jack Dorsey’s first business was that of a dispatching company based in Oakland, which used to handle things like couriers, taxis, and emergency services. The entire business used to be operated online in the year 2000 itself. In July of that year, he got inspired by entities like LiveJournal and AOL Instant Messenger and came up with the concept of creating an online short message communication service. He went to Odeo (a directory and search destination website in the early 2000s), which was also interested in evolving the text messaging format into a status-messaging one.

Jack Dorsey got a partner in the form of Biz Stone and together they came up with a Twitter prototype in the year 2000. It evoked interest from Odeo co-founder Evan Williams.

Evan Williams, Biz Stone and technology entrepreneur Noah Glass renamed Odeo to Obvious Corporation, and from there came Twitter, on 21st March, 2006. Jack Dorsey, apart from being the then-tech start-up’s CEO, also secured funding in two rounds.

Till 2008, Twitter wasn’t designed to generate revenues. In 2008, Jack Dorsey came up with a solution called ‘paid features’. And they say the rest is history with Twitter becoming a global phenomenon post-2009 with more and more people joining the microblogging site.

Jack Dorsey’s second innings as Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey returned as Twitter CEO in 2015 after Dick Costolo, who replaced Evan Williams in 2011, relinquished his position. Jack Dorsey became the permanent CEO on October 5, 2015 and remained in the chair till 2021.

Under his watch, Twitter came up with innovations such as freeing up more of its space for photos and web links. However, Jack Dorsey’s second innings saw him getting more involved in US politics and activism.

Twitter also saw frequent falls in its stock prices in 2018. Not only it failed to fulfill its financial targets, but also led to a drop in revenue due to its decision over banning political advertisements during polls.

Flashback time: When Elon Musk bailed out Jack Dorsey
In 2020, activist hedge fund Elliot Management, led by billionaire Paul Singer, came up with a plan of upstaging Jack Dorsey and nominating four new directors to the Twitter board. Elon Musk, along with blockchain platform Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin countered the move. Paul Singer’s plans failed as Jack Dorsey remained Twitter CEO.

He handed over the reins to Parag Agarwal in 2021, as he got busy with his commitments with business portal Block. Inc, another success story that this article will discuss next.

Block’s impact on US economy
Block is known for developing Square, a financial services platform, helping small and medium-sized businesses to transition into point-of-sale systems such as credit card payments and tablet computers.

Jack Dorsey started this along with Jim McKelvey in May 2010. The idea came to his mind after McKelvey failed to complete a USD 2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings as he didn’t have a credit card-based PoS system.

Square basically works on a small, square-shaped mini card reader-like device attached to Apple gadgets and helps customers with credit card payments.

The company started with just 10 staffers in December 2009 and by June, 2011, the headcount went up to 100. Based in San Francisco, the business got valued at USD 3.2 billion by Business Insider magazine in 2012. In 2015, Square filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2020, the start-up was allowed to open a bank and other financial services. While the world came under a COVID onslaught that year, Square helped small and medium businesses to boom online. In December 2021, Square was renamed Block.Inc. It has multiple app-based products under its portfolio like Square Card Case or Square Wallet, Square Register, Square Market, Square Capital, and Square Payroll.

Square has been a huge hit in the United States, With Starbucks, Tumblr.com and Amazon’s supermarket chain Whole Foods Market being its prominent customers.

Despite Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey sharing a common vision about Twitter and Bluesky, the Tesla CEO’s maverick actions in the last few days have made things difficult. If the micro-blogging site needs to challenge WeChat, it needs Bluesky’s help, whereas onboarding Elon Musk will prove to be a business risk for Jack Dorsey.

The post It’s Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky vs Elon Musk’s Twitter: The social media war is on appeared first on International Finance.

When Jack Dorsey was questioned about whether Twitter turned out the way he had envisioned, he said, “The biggest issue and my biggest regret is that it became a company.”

When asked what organisational structure he preferred for Twitter, Jack Dorsey responded that it ought to be “a protocol” and that Twitter shouldn’t be controlled by either the government or another business.

If Twitter were a protocol, it would function much like email, which is decentralized and allows users of various email providers to connect with one another.

If the deal to sell Twitter to billionaire Elon Musk had been successful, Jack Dorsey would have received USD 978 million.

According to a court document, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for breaking the terms of the $44 billion agreement to buy the social media platform and asked a Delaware court to order the world’s richest man to complete the merger at the agreed $54.20 per Twitter share.

“Elon Musk apparently believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away,” said the lawsuit.

According to the statement, Elon Musk entered into a legally binding arrangement in April of this year and is ending it because “it no longer serves his personal interests.”

The lawsuit accused Elon Musk of “a long list” of violations of the merger agreement that “has cast a pall over Twitter and its business.”

The post Twitter co-founder Dorsey reveals his biggest regret appeared first on International Finance.