When it first came to my attention last week, the race to a million Twitter followers seemed a bit ridiculous. After all, a good chunk of those followers are probably either spammers or bots. But then Ashton Kutcher decided to throw down the gauntlet and formally challenge CNN to a race to the landmark number. Then Larry King got involved. Then EA got involved. Then it was revealed that CNN didn’t even own the Twitter name Kutcher was racing. Then it bought the name. Is your mind numb yet?
Now, apparently, Ted Turner is ready to throw in the towel, and give the race over to Kutcher, if he comes through on his promise to donate 10,000 bed nets to fight malaria in Africa. Appearing on a radio show, Laura Turner Seydel, Turner’s daughter, said that she believed her dad would back Ashton in his quest for a million followers if Ashton comes through on his promise. And she will ask her dad to do so. During the interview (embedded below), Seydel says she has been following the “race” and has been “having a big laugh about it.”
It’s still not entirely clear what Ted Turner has to do with any of this. While he did start CNN, as Larry King noted, he no longer runs it. But Kutcher wanted to punk him, so now he’s apparently involved whether he wants to be or not. Meanwhile, it’s probably a good idea for him to concede “defeat” as Kutcher is gaining quickly on the CNN Twitter account. Kutcher is now past 920,000 followers and is less than 30,000 away from CNN — and gaining fast. The chart below, made by ChartBeat, shows the trend towards Kutcher throughout the day. The service has a live updating version of it on its site.
Yes, this whole thing is silly, but at least it’s now for a good cause. Nothing But Nets protects people in Africa from outbreaks of malaria. If Kutcher is willing to use this race to support that fight, we’ll support him with as many posts as it takes.
Update: CNN is now saying that it will match Kutcher’s 10,000 net pledge if it wins the race. If it loses, it will still donate 1,000 nets.
Please stop this madness!
This is Sparta!
+1
I like this new guy.
Also, nice one Sweyn.
I see your stop the madness and raise you one ill thought out White House sponsored cause video
http://www.yout...h?v=Z5zJvX3pIY4
We’ve got to stop the madness NOW (you know… as opposed to later)
This is not madness, this is wicked bad fun and entertainment, and many people will gain from this. The people who own Twitter, the people who use Twitter as a means of which to Market and engage consumers, Social Media will gain, more people will get punked, and CNN will lose! Today is a good day!
Holy crap. Am I the ONLY one on the internet who thinks Twitter is freakin’ retarded!?!
Friggin’ glorified RSS service…
But the real question is… do they make a profit????? Than, and only then, will I like Twitter.
But this does not make sense. If he has 940000 followers, and I follow him I become the 940001st follower. Nobody should follow until it gets to within a couple of thousand then try pull a last second bid for greatness like in the old online auctions.
Lulz, In fact I think the follower count is going to go haywire in the last couple of minutes as people all try to unfollow and follow again.
I’d like to see TED toss in some of his own nets rather than throw in the towel. How about win or lose, both of these guys donate 10K nets?
This is actually pretty cool to watch.
More proof web 2.0 is alive and well and no bubble. Twitter could be worth $20 billion. http://iamned.com/blog/
And by the end of this stupid game, the only winner will be CNN and Kutcher.
Why don’t just donate those bed nets without strings attached? Ouhhhh I forgot, this is a Marketing strategy. Go on fellow capitalists, go on!
I think the big winner here is Twitter
THIS!
IS!
SPARTA!!!!
I wonder if Ashton didn’t publicly call out CNN he could have got 1 million faster… it seems like the only reason CNN is gaining this fast is because they are getting all his detractors who don’t want him to win. He could have still put on the sideshow on Ustream and whatnot but still not called CNN into the ring
Yeah well probably no harm in getting CNN more followers, it is a useful feed.
true, but let me clarify, i didn’t mean faster as in a higher follower rate than now .. just faster than CNN overall.. may have taken another few weeks but would have solidified that he was the first to a million.
Actually Ted should make this more competitive and at the end of the day when CNN crushes Ashton, Ted and Ashton both split the money and donate the nets anyways.
Laura Turner Seydel, not Tuner.
Oops, thx.
Weigh in and vote:
http://www.fili...llower-befo/249
forgotten billionaire supports shameless, self professed, selfpromoting south african bed net promoter? how much could 10,000 bed nets cost. 30-50G. tell one of them to sell one of there personal cars and im sure the nets will be on there way. sounds more like mosquitos of a feather flocking together
Pest.ControlLocator.com – kill yourself
Hilarity ensues
Obama should enter late in the game and just do a state of the union style address (perhaps over twitter) and plug his twitter… steal both of their thunder, i’m surprised he’s not at a million already..
I like that idea.
CO-sign
yankeedog09
http://www.theh...hourlocator.com
I need an investor- (just one) to get this business
off the ground, Anyone interested? Please give it a look! I’m desperate . This is an Advertising Website that will make Millions with the right person.
http://thenextw...k-acquired-cnn/
guys, check this out. Is that ture or not?
Yes, true. I linked to our coverage of it above. Find it here:
http://www.tech...witter-account/
Stfu about this and get back to tech news
Ashton Kutcher is one savvy dude for a former underwear model. I predict Ashton one day he finds himself running a highly profitable independent studio.
he’s a very savvy dude, i’m surprised that he’s getting so much flak from techcrunch readers.. the guy is pretty much one of us: he dabbles in his own startups and invests when he likes an idea (like ours: @saysmeteam) …
Please ,,,,, they guy hasnt held a real job in his entire life …
Married to a has been actress and all of a sudden he is farking entrepreneur
The fact is ,,,, he tried to out race a fake @cnnbrk account
Pretty farking brilliant … duhhhh
jealous much?
Yawn, yawn, yawn
Ashton isnt going to get it. Right now CNN is at 928k, Ashton at 869k (according to twitterholic)
Twitterholic is way behind. Ashton is at 928K with CNN at 952K
I just unfollowed both of them (but realized it’s just going to make it drag out longer)
Ha. Yeah.
Darn, MG — do they not let you do snarky ledes like you used to do at VB? this has a million twittering “buffalo soldiers” reference written all over it! Even the marley and ted turner-savvy might miss it.
how much did cnn buy the twitter account for and whos was it?
why twitter is so popular??
If AK wins we should donate him a brain.
Why should I follow CNN if they are still giving 1000 nets if they lose? I will follow AK and if he wins, people will get 10,000+1000 nets.
At present, more and more countries are involved in the global economic crisis . The United States at the beginning of sub-loan crisis, developing and developed countries of the “decoupling theory” was once popular, that is, from developing countries to the impact of sub-loan crisis, the growth momentum to remain independent. The facts have shown that financial integration in the global environment, there is no one country can be spared.
http://www.customs-data.com.cn
Twitter has become a phenomenon! Web Coherence just tried a miniscule experiment and look what we found.
http://webcoher...he-twitter-way/
You might also be interested in seeing how new forms of spam are emerging out of Twitter!
http://webcoher...s/twitter-spam/
i think there’ll be a “stock market” crash where everybody do a mass sell just to be the millionth follower….
Looks like Ashton Kutcher could pass CNN before the end of the day as he is seeing significant follower growth compared to the breaking news service!
There’s no way Ted Turner can get to a million Twitter followers.
… but CAPTAIN PLANET CAN!!!
/b/ have joined the race. http://www.twit...com/BASEMENTDAD . Now at 127,576 followers
The only thing about giving “prizes” to the millionth follower is that people will hold back and not follow him until it gets very close to 1,000,000, which will in fact severely slow down the rate he is getting new followers.
And why do I think that? Because it just happened to me as I went to follow him, and I don’t particularly care about becoming a Sim, it would just be fun. But some people would really care about that, and so would wait to follow him until they think they can be the 1,000,000th.
I’m surprised no one has bothered to question whether donating malaria nets is even a good idea. It’s just accepted as a good idea to donate money or supplies without questioning whether actually you’re doing more harm than good.
an African Economist pleas for the Aid to Africa to stop:
http://www.spie...,363663,00.html
quoted from article:
“Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need.”
and
“No one in the low-wage world of Africa can be cost-efficient enough to keep pace with donated products.”
Donating nets puts local entrepreneurs out of business. Why create and sell nets when people are getting them at heavily subsidized or free prices?
yea slightly off topic I know, but someone had to bring it up.
Good point. And what’s more, I really dislike the way celebrities use a charitable effort as a mask to justify self promotion. Sure, it may do some good, but it’s doing nothing to change things at the root level where it’s most needed.
So is Ashton trying to make a play for Twitter by making it more visible and marketable. Kutcher seems to be using it to promote his other online businesses. Maybe he should buy stock in Twitter as well!