> People close to X said the platform pressed vendors that were supplying it with goods or services to spend money on advertising. X is a customer of Amazon Web Services, its cloud-computing unit, and had past-due bills for that. X used those unpaid bills as leverage during negotiations, according to people familiar with the matter.
> At its peak, Amazon had spent around $100 million a year on advertising on X, according to a person familiar with the matter, far more than it is currently spending.
This is absolutely wild, way worse than the Verizon bills.
bediger4000 · 23h ago
This seems like a massive violation of both the spirit of the free market, and of the idea that advertising provides an economic signal and information that consumers need to make, so that the Invisible Hand of the marketplace works.
Musk only has a certain amount of reputation he can use to force this category of deal. What happens when he consumes all his reputation?
quantified · 23h ago
He has massive economic force, and he has his own legion of trolls. That is part of his reputation that is largely disconnected from popular goodwill. So I suspect he'll sustain for quite a while.
Verizon may ramp things down quietly, or increase if they see the ads working.
techpineapple · 23h ago
It doesn’t feel like this can be a very good growth strategy though, for someone at the top of his game, actions like this seem to risk making his top his peak.
Nobody gets fired for buying IBM -> nobody gets sued if they pay-off to the Reich. This is so incredibly tasteless & terrible; it's pathetic that there's been no visible push back.
> At its peak, Amazon had spent around $100 million a year on advertising on X, according to a person familiar with the matter, far more than it is currently spending.
This is absolutely wild, way worse than the Verizon bills.
Musk only has a certain amount of reputation he can use to force this category of deal. What happens when he consumes all his reputation?
Verizon may ramp things down quietly, or increase if they see the ads working.