The social media meltdown

Hi there, it’s Alex in Los Angeles. There was one bright spot in social media’s week of chaos. But first...Today’s must-reads:• It’s officia [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi there, it’s Alex in Los Angeles. There was one bright spot in social media’s week of chaos. But first... Today’s must-reads: • It’s official: Elon Musk [has bought Twitter]( • Musk [plans to become CEO]( and reverse the platform’s lifetime bans • Amazon’s stock plunged after the company projected the slowest [holiday-quarter growth in its history]( No one wants a “free-for-all hellscape” Mark Zuckerberg started this year with $125 billion to his name, according to the [Bloomberg Billionaires Index](. He’ll end this week about $87 billion poorer. Zuckerberg’s company, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., missed earnings estimates Wednesday, sending the stock [down 25% on Thursday](. It wasn’t the only calamitous story in the industry. Alphabet Inc. saw $170 billion evaporate from its market cap in two days as Google sales struggled and YouTube saw its [first-ever drop in revenue](. And Snap Inc.’s [stock price has slumped]( to a quarter less than when it went public five years ago. Meanwhile, Twitter Inc. is finally being handed off to a mercurial billionaire owner who promptly fired its [chief executive officer and key leaders](. The new “[Chief Twit](” Elon Musk brought a literal [kitchen sink]( to Twitter’s corporate headquarters when he arrived. Yet amid the chaos of [shrinking advertising budgets]( and shifting [Apple Inc. privacy policies](, there was one sliver of sunshine in the industry: Pinterest Inc. The company’s shares [popped more than 15%]( in late trading after reporting revenue and user growth that beat analysts’ estimates. I asked Pinterest CEO Bill Ready for his take on what’s going on. Sure, the company is a smaller player not without its own drama, including three straight quarters of user growth decline. But this earnings cycle, they’re the standout. Ready said he spent much of his first 120 days as CEO focusing on what makes Pinterest not like its social media peers, emphasizing those areas to bring in users and advertisers. “There’s a war for where you’re gonna watch the next funny dance video. There’s also a war for where you’re gonna post the next funny dance video,” he said. And that’s not the battle he thinks his company is fighting. “There are social elements to our platform, but we don't think of ourselves as social media.” Pinterest helps users find and share image-based lifestyle ideas, which means people are typically coming to the platform with a reason: e.g., find interior design inspiration, or learn how to style a certain shoe or decorate for the holidays. And, critically, it’s “a positive place on the internet,” Ready said. “It’s not a place where people are going to shout about politics. That matters for the users and I think it matters for the advertisers as well.” Ready wasn’t the only one preaching positivity on Thursday. Before Musk [closed his long-drawn-out acquisition]( of Twitter, he tweeted that the site “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape.” In an open letter to marketers, Musk pronounced that advertising can “delight, entertain and inform you” on social media. Marketers on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms will have to decide if it’s still worth the trouble.—[Alex Barinka](mailto:abarinka2@bloomberg.net) The big story What did you get done this week? After six months of protest, Elon Musk closed the deal to buy Twitter, and [immediately fired much of its leadership](. Departures include CEO Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and trust; Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, Twitter’s general counsel. Get fully charged Tesla engineers visited the Twitter office [to review code]( for Musk. Tech giants like Amazon, Meta and Intel are now being [pressed to slash costs]( after years of bulking up. Federal prosecutors in New York charged a Florida man who called himself the “[Wolf of Airbnb”]( with wire fraud and identity theft. In Brazil, Telegram and a handful of niche social networks complicate a contentious [debate about disinformation]( ahead of the country’s election. Jeff Bezos is set to see as much as $23 billion [erased from his fortune]( after Amazon projected sluggish sales for the holiday shopping season. [Sign up for Cyber Bulletin](, our upcoming weekly newsletter on cybersecurity, for exclusive coverage inside the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage—and how businesses are playing defense. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. [Sign up for Game On]( to go deep inside the video game business, delivered on Fridays. Why not try both? Like getting this newsletter? 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