Is MrBeast Serious About Being Twitter CEO? It Certainly Sounds Like It
In December, YouTube sensation Jimmy Donaldson, also known as "MrBeast," quipped on Twitter that he could be the new CEO of the platform. It was during the time when Twitter owner Elon Musk was conducting polls asking users whether he should step down as the platform's CEO. Then, Musk announced that he would step down as soon as he finds "someone foolish enough to take the job" while he would focus on the server and software side of things.
Musk has yet to find a replacement, but it appears that MrBeast is quite serious about his dreams of running Twitter some day. Currently, he runs the most-subscribed personal YouTube channel at over 127 million, and recently sat down with podcast show host Lex Fridman and discussed his ambitions of serving as Twitter's CEO. To recall, when he first tweeted this wish, Elon Musk appeared in the comments section and remarked that "it's not out of the question." On the podcast, when Fridman asked what he thinks about everything that's been happening at Twitter since Elon took over, MrBeast casually remarked, "I think he should make me CEO. Like I tweeted."
The YouTube phenom is keen
Interestingly, Fridman also threw his hat in the ring to take over Twitter in Musk's place. "Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world," he tweeted in December. Musk responded that the condition for joining Twitter is to invest one's life savings and also change its fortune, because the company was staring at bankruptcy. Fridman responded that he is ready for the task, and expressed confidence that he would turn things around.
Twitter can get to 1 billion active users in a year. The key is content: video & podcasts. Tasks:
1. Make a great video & audio player
2. Attract creators via rev-shareTwitter is already the comment section of the Internet. Now it has to host the content that drives the convo.
— Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) December 23, 2022
As for MrBeast, he appears to be equally enthusiastic, if not more. When Fridman asked about his first act as the new chief of the social media platform, MrBeast laughed it off with coy "I can't spoil it," adding "I have to get hired first."
My first order of business, make it where creators actually want to post videos on Twitter and not just link to other platforms pic.twitter.com/PR6pEnpv18
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) December 23, 2022
Notably, a day after his original tweet and getting a response from Musk, he announced on Twitter that his "first order of business" would be turning the platform into a place where "creators actually want to post videos." Musk reportedly has similar dreams, and is willing to give content creators higher compensation than even YouTube.
The winds can fly in either direction
MrBeast, however, is apparently not convinced about Musk's dreams of luring creators away from YouTube or other rivals. "Higher compensation will be hard," MrBeast tweeted, adding that he'd be shocked if Musk cracks the code. The concerns are legitimate, as Twitter faced an advertiser exodus when Musk took over.
The conditions are so dire that layoffs continue, employee perks have been slashed, offices are being vacated as the rent is due, and even toilets are running low on maintenance at Twitter offices.
On Fridman's podcast, MrBeast mentioned that Twitter will always be closer to TikTok than YouTuber, because people won't flock to Twitter for watching videos that are an hour long. Even 15-minute long videos would be a challenge from a user retention perspective.
He expressed excitement that Twitter is currently moving at breakneck pace when it comes to feature development and making changes that take legacy social media platforms far longer to implement, but he also made it clear that this is a make or break approach, and things can very realistically go south.