'Battle of the Century' Zuckerberg Challenges Musk to Duel... Aiming for Image Reversal

WP "Using Situation to Regain Cool Image"
NBC "Meta Imitates SNS Business Strategies Like Twitter Monetization"

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, is reportedly aiming to revamp his image through a showdown with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Twitter. Amid Meta's struggles with declining performance and criticisms over weakening technology and lack of vision, Zuckerberg is said to be leveraging Musk to capture global attention and reclaim a truly 'cool' image.

The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 24th (local time) in an article titled "Zuckerberg's Elonization: How Meta's CEO is Handling It Coolly" that Zuckerberg is taking steps to regain his image as the 'Tech Bro (the big brother of the IT industry)'.

The spark was a verbal exchange between Musk and Zuckerberg on the 21st. After Meta announced the launch of an app called 'Threads' as a rival to Twitter, Musk publicly challenged Zuckerberg to a fight, saying, "I'm ready for a fight," to which Zuckerberg responded on his Instagram, "Send me your location," indicating his willingness to duel. On the same day, Musk also expressed his intention to start training if the fight was confirmed.

Whether the physical fight between the two will materialize remains uncertain, but if it does, it is expected to generate a box office revenue of $1 billion (about 1.3 trillion KRW), drawing intense focus from the tech industry on this issue.

This exchange instantly made Zuckerberg a competitor to Musk. Although this is not their first verbal clash, just facing off against Musk, the current 'world's richest person' and entrepreneur whose every word is closely watched, has brought significant attention to the previously faltering Zuckerberg.

Vascar Chakraborty, a professor at Tufts University, said, "Zuckerberg must have felt at some point that he was not being respected," adding, "This cage match is likely intended to make others feel 'Zuckerberg is still alive'."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Until a few years ago, Zuckerberg was an icon of innovation. After dropping out of Harvard University in 2004, he founded the social networking service (SNS) Facebook and grew it into a global company. He was even named Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' in 2010, gaining significant attention. However, since then, Zuckerberg has been on a downward trajectory. He faced criticism over policy issues related to the spread of illegal content on SNS, which took a long time to address, and recently, he suffered a major blow in advertising business due to competition from China's SNS TikTok. Although he renamed the company Meta to focus on the new technology 'Metaverse' as a core business, profitability has worsened, raising concerns in the market.

In contrast, Musk rose to become the world's richest person based on Tesla's stock price increase, and SpaceX has been securing major government contracts steadily. Although his decisions regarding Twitter initially faced criticism, WP notes that he has received praise for moves such as monetization.

WP assessed that Zuckerberg, who has been in a slump, is undergoing what they call 'Elonization' by emulating Musk. According to the report, over the past year, Zuckerberg appeared on podcasts hosted by U.S. comedian Joe Rogan, a fervent Tesla fan, and AI researcher Lex Fridman. Recently, he has been posting photos on Instagram of himself practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wearing a bulletproof vest, drawing attention. This resembles how Musk stirs up buzz on Twitter.

Through this, Zuckerberg is trying to regain his cool image, WP reported. According to an internal source who requested anonymity, the image Zuckerberg wants to project publicly is that of a 'cool and visionary innovator.' Brooke Hammerling, a consultant who has handled corporate affairs for tech companies, said, "These founders want to tell their own stories," adding, "The CEO's story can sometimes become bigger than the company itself."

(Photo by Zuckerberg, Instagram capture)

Analysts also suggest that Zuckerberg is increasing his association with Musk from a business perspective. After Musk acquired Twitter last year and carried out mass layoffs and account monetization, stirring continuous controversy, Zuckerberg has positively evaluated these moves, leaving room to follow suit.

According to NBC, Zuckerberg recently commented on a podcast about Musk's management of Twitter, saying, "Many of the principles he pursued were basically about reducing the distance between engineers and management within the company and making the organization more technical," adding, "I think that was a good change and good for the industry." He continued, "While I think it was a good change, many executives were somewhat afraid to implement it," and praised Musk's approach for giving industry leaders the impetus to rethink how to structure their companies and increase productivity.

NBC noted, "Twitter's competitors are imitating Musk's tactics, and Zuckerberg is no exception," adding, "It is surprising that Musk's influence persists even though Twitter's corporate size has significantly shrunk since his acquisition."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.