“Do you know how big we are? Do you know what CNN is?!” Them fightin’ words — from longtime CNN host Larry King to Ashton Kutcher. King sent out the YouTube video (below) responding to the challenge Kutcher laid out yesterday to beat CNN to become the first Twitter user with a million followers.
So far, it’s not working all that well for Kutcher. He is gaining followers at a remarkable rate — he now has over 870,000 followers — yesterday he had under 850,000. But CNN is gaining them just as quickly. Yesterday they stood just above 900,000 and now they’re just under 930,000. So Kutcher has stepped up his game slightly, offering Guitar Hero to the person who is his millionth follower. Come on Ashton, you can do better than that.
King, meanwhile, promises to take on any challenge Kutcher throws his way. He notes, “I’ll go on your…Twitter — or whatever it is you do.” But he corrects Kutcher that Ted Turner (the subject of Kutcher’s throw down yesterday) doesn’t actually run CNN anymore. But, he notes that Turner is likely to accept an offer to meet Kutcher face to face on Larry King’s show to discuss the feud.
So what does everyone think — has Twitter officially jumped the shark now? Larry King is offering to devote a show to a fake race to a million followers — a good majority of which are probably spammers or fake accounts — on a service that sends 140 character messages. It’s nice to see all these big time names using the same services we all use, but come on guys, surely there’s some real news going on out there (which I fully expect will be echoed about us in the comments of this post — beat you to it!).
“surely there’s some real news going on out there”
what other news are you talking about, MG?
That Simon Cowell may leave American Idol, of course.
Your sad attempt at brushing off comments with meager witticism isn’t working.
You’re a hack, MG, and so is your organization.
@Attallah – Comments like that amaze me with their ignorance.
With the plethora of websites and articles out there, if you don’t like it why read it? Let along comment
what is wrong with you… seriously does anyone laugh anymore… this world is full of negative, scary recession shit and this stuff makes people laugh.. not you cause you obviously have no sense of humor.. shouldn’t the internet be fun?
Think about it? You have a comedian going head to head with CNN. At the very least you should appreciate the marketing genius of it… CNN gets a bunch of free pub… as done AK for his new movie…
not you mg.. the stick in the mud above you with the eternal thunderstorm over his head…
larry king is doing it wrong {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/OXwLv8L917_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”larry king is doing it wrong ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/IA5Jxbg6LA”}}}
Confront Larry. Get it on video. Post it. Show me.
I love hearing old guys who really have no idea what twitter is.
Better is Aston’s comment on his lame youtube post where is says, “I love the conversation with you guys” All the 69 people of the 800,000 that he follows back! Nice one way conversation. Isn’t that a soap box?
@aplusk i’ve made you something http://twitpic.com/3ctd5 What do you think?
Meh, it’s all in good fun for a meaningless number for a meaningless metric (user wise). No better or worse for Twitter.
The problem with the whole “millionth follower” thing is that people can stop following and then try to time it. Won’t this just cause his numbers to drop?
Yep, every single time. I’ve done metrics on various deals my company has run over the years, and it always experiences a drop before the target is hit, and a small rebound afterwards. Sometimes this rebound sticks, hence this is still a useful technique… but it’s dumb in a race.
I followed Kutcher yesterday and immediately was followed by about 5 bots…
femmebots? cause that would be pretty cool.
I find this whole thing annoying and arrogant. Ashton actually used to have interesting tweets (yes, yes, I follow him and am also guilty of buying US Weekly). But now that he’s desperately after 1 million users, it’s turned his tweeting into a joke and also surfaces an arrogant side I find unbecoming. By the way Perez Hilton is also part of this so-called race.
This whole thing doesn’t really prove anything also. There isn’t really a race to it if the numbers are made up of repeated accounts and bots.
I AGREE! @suzannesalas Ashton’s tweets at one point ‘WERE’ entertaining.
this twitter thing is ok , first time it aint bad
bread and circuses
It’ll be a great day when Twitter is only spoken of as another company that went the way of Friendster.
“What can I offer that someone will want, hey I know My One Millionth follower gets tot sleep with Demi Moore”
- “Twitter is experiencing technical difficulties, stand by”
Daniel
https://Spideroak.com
Anyone else read this using South Park’s “Cripple fight!” voice?
It looks like a good PR/marketing stunt to me.
And to your point about not being newsworthy: true, but it’ll probably generate a lot of pageviews.
Just a heads up. This article sucks the meaning out of TC.
“CNN” is good in an RSS kind of way, but at least Ashton is a real person and taking advantage of the two-way communication component of Twitter. Million or not, he get points for that in my book.
Oh, please. It’s not like he actually even really knows what Twitter is. Larry King is a luddite jerk*ss who has never actually PERSONALLY been on the Internets.
Back in Dec 2006, he had Roseanne Barr on his show, and after he told her about having no experience, she offered to show him and he said ‘no’. I’ve got the video up on my personal blog, and here’s the transcript.
—
LARRY KING: On your blog you write, “Bush is going to declare war on China next, I swear.”
ROSEANNE BARR: I was so scared because I woke up and there was the Drudge, you know. I always read the Drudge Report and it said on there that the Chinese were like, you know, spying on our subs or doing something with our subs and I was like, “Oh no, he’s going to think that’s an act of war and then we’re going to go over there next.” I mean we’re everywhere. We’re everywhere.
KING: The Internet as a political medium viable?
BARR: Yes, it’s like the only one left, absolutely, and that’s not just me saying it. That’s everybody saying it.
KING: But there’s 80 billion things on it.
BARR: Yes, but if you know where to look, you know, it all can come together. When you’re looking for the particular information that you’re looking for after you do the big search, this is what I found out by going on there, it just takes your mind and then you live in there forever. You can never come out.
KING: I’ve never done it, never gone searching.
BARR: Oh, my God! It just opens up the whole universe. It’s so awesome. You would love it.
KING: No, I wouldn’t.
BARR: Anything you want to know.
KING: The wife loves it. I wouldn’t love it. What do you punch little buttons and things?
BARR: You just click on this thing. The thing is you got to be able to read, so you have to have strong glasses when you’ve over 50 and then you just scroll down and click. It’s not that hard. I can show you how to do it.
KING: No, thanks.
As you said, back in Dec 2006 , that’s a very long time in Internet World, you actually need less than a couple of hours to figure out how the internet works.
Not sure, if twitter needs it, but this is a big PR-gag for twitter, the last people out there not using it, will jump in soon.
The more popular Twitter becomes, the more spam and keyword stuffing I get to deal with. I love Twitter Viagra Pharmacy p1llz
Larry King is so old media. Dinosaur to be extinct.
If you are over the age of 35… Think back to when cable came to your neighborhood as a kid…
Does anyone remember when (SuperStation WTBS) Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) would start their broadcasting day blaring Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” video spliced with NASA footage?
Or am I just delusional?
Possibly delusional. But I want to see that!
MG-
You’ve been doing a great job at TC. I can certainly see why the VB guys mentioned your pithy headlines in their sendoff – you do make them quite entertaining.
I also think it’s cool how active you are in the comments section. It really takes it to the next level (even when you’re just cutting the legs out from under stupid jerks).
Thanks for reading
Stop writing. You hurt my brain.
They should do a debate on Larry King live but each argument or response be limited to 140 characters. Then we will see how silly Twitter is.
Haha, this might have just made my day. And I’m voting for Kutcher. I agree, CNN is too RSS…nothing what Twitter should be.
….And then Macho Man Randy Savage comes running out of the backstage area, jumps up on the top rope while the ref is turned around and drops the elbow on CNN, and Ashton rolls over and pins CNN for the victory….
I love this show.
Ha, I was thinking more of a build up to a boxing match, but that works even better!
Oh no, but boxing is a real sport, MG.
Awesome. Love this kind of thing so much!
If you follow Ashton Kutcher on Twitter you are a total Douche…no really you are.
I was just thinking that twitter had jumped the shark today when I read on Gizmodo that someone had rigged their office chair to tweet their farts.
http://i.gizmod...tters-existence
Larry’s perfect for twitter…his comedy timing is best in short 140 or less characters.
Larry King’s still alive? Wow! Now, that’s news.
Guitar Hero? Seriously?
He should take Woody Harrelson’s lead and offer up an Indecent Proposal with his wife.
Guitar Hero? So 2008.
What about this: “Raising the bet @aplusk – we’ll also give your 1,000,000th follower a copy of every game EA makes in 2009″
Is this 2009 yet
http://twitter.com/ea
I don’t think you understand what “Jump the Shark” means.
That term means absolutely nothing in this context.
It makes perfect sense in this context. Do you know what it means?
http://en.wikip...mping_the_shark
1) Twitter has not initiated any of this.
2) Twitter’s growth is actually accelerating, not slowing down or peaking.
3) This penis fencing contest is well within the boundaries of Twitter functionality, and not some strange off-topic PR stunt.
Seriously, jumping the shark applies here as much as kicking the baby. It’s absolutely meaningless.
How about nuking the fridge then?
it’s his post, so why u just keep silence about the whole “terms” explanation. Maybe you just want to correct some, but anyway, this is blog.Not Oxford Dictionary.
Well now my obsession with reading TechCrunch.com everyday has turned me onto twitter and being obsessed over here now as well, thanks a lot haha.
@cnnbrk is NOT a CNN Twitter account! Look at the one person @cnnbrk follows.. it’s James Cox (@imajes). Why is that? Well, because he created it.
I know there’s a lot of support for this “you don’t need to be a trained journalist” schtick nowadays, but I think it’d be awesome to maintain at least the “research the story” part of the old trade.
Your information is outdated.
Interesting to know. Though for the record, it wasn’t at the time of my posting.
Great marketing for Twitter!
If I were CNN I would follow Ashton Kutcher for a laugh as everyone will see that visible next to the other person they are following!
As much as I want Ashton to succeed I don’t think he will…
I concur with Anderson above. Twitter has not jumped the shark. @aplusk may have jumped the shark, but that’s his problem. Twitter is apparently still going strong. If Twitter pulls some stupid monetization trick and their growth evaporates, *then* they will have officially jumped the shark. IMHO, of course.
http://soshable...gibson-twitter/
Ashton better have a secure password if he knows about Tila on Monday
The only thing that comes to mind, around the topic of how old people just can’t “diss” in modern jargon:
http://www.yout...h?v=1jdeqKte98g
Well, it seems that aplusk will bury cnn instead: http://spreadsh...z2ixgs0RgOzYrNQ
bb4now,
PMC
Offer something better, Kutcher!
Oops:
http://spreadsh...zYrNQ&hl=en
As the chief artist and instigator of the #pillow fight celebrating National Pillow Fight Day this looks like another “fun” fight. Ashton Kutcher, Larry King/CNN all win and soi does Twitter thanks to the publicity. There is no real loser as nothing can be lost, only gained. Bravo to Ashton Kutcher for this punked plan!
Using Twitter is not only entertaining, but has some great side effects.
See: How Using Twitter Increases Intelligence
http://artofsee...s-intelligence/
Judy Rey Wasserman
Ok, just try this on Tweefight http://tr.im/iT6m, insert @cnn and @aplusk and see who wins, easy right?
F Larry King and F the F’in Diaz Brothers!
Did you see that EA’s Tweet? If Ashton wins they’re putting the 1MM follower in one of their games. Pretty rad. http://www.twitter.com/ea
This aggression will not stand. I, and the rest of the internet have had just about enough of this back and forth and can no longer sit by silently watching. We are mobilizing with #unfollowashton and @unfollowashton to show both twitter and the world (but mostly twitter) that it is OK to not follow Ashton. Join us. Or else.
Congratulations Ashton….Thank You for what you’ve done for the people in Africa Thanks!
tell lis cheney she doesnt know what she is talking about,all canadians choose their own doctors,and I am 81,and have always chosen my own doctor,and I pay $96.00 a month and have always been able to go to any hospital I want,she is avery rude speaker. gloria magnussen