- [Commentator] Ladies and gentlemen,
it's the tech billionaire death match
you all haven't been waiting for.
No, seriously, they are planning to fight.
In one corner, Twitter owner Elon Musk!
(crowd cheers)
In the other, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
(crowd cheers)
(bell ringing)
(fists thudding) (fighters groaning)
(bell ringing) (crowd groaning)
- Okay, so yes, this is funny,
but it's also getting kind of serious.
Last week, Elon Musk tweeted
that he'd be up for a cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg said, "Send me location."
Musk said, "Vegas Octagon."
Dana White, the president of the UFC
told "The Wall Street Journal" that he has spoken
to both Zuckerberg and Musk about a face-off.
"They are both dead serious," White said.
And now here we are but this fight is much deeper
than two big egoed billionaires.
The history of the tech industry
has been about companies fighting over us,
the users, and our dollars.
Oh, and yes, different ideologies.
This fight is no different,
except, well, the possibility
of a real celebrity death match.
- Let's get it on.
- So, allow me to explain what's really happening
in this fight and how it's indicative
of this new emerging tech battlefield,
with the help of these guys.
- [Announcer] Custom action figures may not precisely
replicate the likeness of the real individuals.
- [Joanna] Let's look at the history of this fight.
Musk and Zuckerberg have actually partnered in the past.
In 2016, Musk's SpaceX was supposed to take
Facebook's internet satellites up to orbit until.
(explosion rumbling)
At the time, Zuckerberg said he was deeply disappointed.
Things really blew up in 2018 though
when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica
had acquired and used personal data from Facebook users.
Musk's Tesla and SpaceX
deleted their company Facebook pages,
and Musk tweeted, "It's not a political statement
and I didn't do this because someone dared me to do it.
Just don't like Facebook.
Gives me the willies.
Sorry."
And again, in 2022, he tweeted something similar.
"Facebook gives me the willies."
That was just a few weeks before
Musk initiated an acquisition of Twitter,
which officially put these two
up against each other as competing Social Media CEOs.
Musk said he wanted Twitter to be-
- [Musk] An inclusive arena for free speech.
- [Joanna] He specifically talked
about political neutrality,
something he didn't think that was found
in other social networks.
- My understanding is that
Zuckerberg spent $400 million in the last election,
normally in a get out the vote campaign,
but really fundamentally in support of Democrats.
Is that accurate or not accurate?
- That is accurate.
- Does that sound unbiased to you?
- A Meta spokeswoman directed me
to this Zuckerberg post from 2020,
which said that these partisan claims were false.
Meanwhile, Musk has been courting
more folks from the right,
including Tucker Carlson himself.
So yes, there's differing ideology,
but also users and money.
In 2022, Twitter reported an estimated
238 million daily active users.
Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
have 3 billion daily active users
and a far bigger ad business.
But Musk's takeover of Twitter
has pushed Meta to build a Twitter competitor,
reported to be called Threads.
It's said to be a text-based social network,
like Twitter, with integration with Instagram.
In an internal meeting at Meta,
a top Zuckerberg lieutenant said he had heard
from public figures who wanted a sanely run platform.
That's what actually prompted, well, this.
(opponent groaning) (crowd groaning)
Sure, these guys are very public about their rivalry,
but it's also representative
of the broader state of affairs right now in big tech.
It used to be that companies were frenemies.
Now they just seem to be enemies.
Just look at this fight chart.
Yes, you have Twitter and Meta.
Then Zuckerberg has been open
about his beef with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple has limited how much data Facebook
and other apps can collect on iPhones and iPads,
and the two now compete on mixed reality headsets.
Then Google and Microsoft are now in an AI battle,
building on its existing cloud fight.
Google has even filed a complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission
accusing Microsoft of anti-competitive cloud practices.
And then there's Amazon, which competes
with Microsoft and Google on cloud services too.
And then you've now got OpenAI,
which Elon also has beef with and competes with Google.
Yeah, we're gonna need some more action figures.
So, who is gonna win in this round
between Zuck and Musk?
Well, Zuck clearly seems to have the upper hand
with his Jujutsu training,
and a far bigger, more prospering social media empire.
But Musk claims to have a move called The Walrus,
where he just lies on top of his opponent.
Or hey, maybe these billionaires
just go in a totally different direction.
Yeah, I doubt it.
(upbeat music)
Wanna just go get some Sweet Baby Ray's?
Sure.
Wanna come on my private plane?
We can eat it there.
Okay.