Is the oversized ego of the two men proportional to their fortune? This is a question that remains unanswered as the two billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg met for a duel with virile accents, via social networks. True to form, it was the controversial Twitter buyer who threw the first stone by declaring “I’m in for a cage fight, if he is too lol” on Twitter on Wednesday June 21.
The founder and head of Meta (which notably owns Facebook) replied on Instagram with a laconic “Give me the location”. The SpaceX founder then suggested the Las Vegas Octagon. This arena is used for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the largest MMA league in the world.
A competing social network at the origin of the duel?
The two tech giants have clashed for years over their opposing views of the world, from politics to artificial intelligence. But the animosity between them has escalated further with the arrival of a possible direct competitor for Twitter. Shortly after Elon Musk took over Twitter, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, announced its desire to launch a similar text-based social platform that would directly compete with Twitter.
Since this announcement, the founder of Tesla has multiplied the messages on Twitter against Mark Zuckerberg. The exchange sparked a flurry of reactions on social media, with bets on the potential winner, with Mark Zuckerberg – himself a martial artist – emerging as the clear favourite.
Twitter at half mast
Interviewed by AFP, Meta confirmed the authenticity of Mark Zuckerberg’s message. Elon Musk bought the social network for 44 billion dollars before carrying out massive layoffs in the company, and reopening the platform to conspiratorial accounts, resulting in a significant loss of advertising revenue.
Present in Paris a few days ago for the Paris Viva Tech international trade fair, the boss of Tesla however affirmed that advertising revenues were back.