No, it's "X", the all-in-app he wanted to do back in the 2000s, and which WeChat is now.

That's not a terrible idea if he can pull it off and make it profitable even despite the massive debt he loaded Twitter with to purchase it.

See also: Compuserve, AOL, Facebook

WeChat succeeds because it caters to a less mature market with a simple integrated product. American network service users have demonstrated repeatedly that they are OK with bundling products but less enthusiastic about bundled services.

WeChat succeeds because it's a state sponsored monopoly. It would not have existed in a free and mature market in any western capitalist style economy.

I just gave 3 examples of products that succeeded brilliantly in a less mature market in western capitalist economies. WeChat might be an anachronism in 15 years just as AOL is today, although it continues to exist as a brand.

Incidentally I just glanced at the AOL website to remind myself how it's doing, and their ad banner offers a service to reduce the amount of paper junk mail you receive by signing up for AOL's managed unsubscription service. Less Information Age and more Irony Age.

> 2000s-era blogspot citizen journalism

What's wrong with 2000s-era blogspot citizen journalism.

Absolutely nothing! Early blogging was great!

But doing what happened 20 years ago is hardly "truly innovative"

This is Elon Musk MO. He invents nothing, just repackages and markets - the electric car (the very first kind of car invented over a hundred years ago) and going to space in a rocket? These are his big things and people eat it up. Why?

Nothing, but it seems unlikely to make money.

98% of it was/is just opinion articles. There's very little research or real information gathering involved.