Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s expanding list of cash-fuelled bragging rights includes Picassos, Bugatti supercars and a ticket on Elon Musk’s rocket to the moon. He can now add to that collection the mantle of having the most-ever retweeted Twitter post.
For the honour, the founder of Japan’s second-largest online shopping site Zozo will be paying out a total of ¥100 million (Dh3.3m) to 100 lucky people who shared the post. Seeking to be one of the randomly chosen winners,Mr Maezawa’s audience retweeted his post a record 3.8 million times, and gave it more than 900,000 “likes”.
The previous record holder for retweets was a college student in the US whose goal was to get a year’s free supply of chicken nuggets from the Wendy’s fast-food franchise, according to Statista. That post had 3.58 million retweets and 990,000 likes. Ellen DeGeneres’s 2014 Oscars selfie with Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was second with 3.3 million retweets.
"To participate, all you have to do is follow me and RT this tweet," Mr Maezawa wrote on January 5. The tweet featured a picture of a man astride a rocket silhouetted against full moon, in a style of the iconic image from the movie ET.
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Mr Maezawa also touted that his shopping site Zozotown reached ¥10 billion in merchandise volume during a New Year’s sale. The business is the main source of the 43-year-old’s $1.7bn net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Zozo’s shares jumped as much as 6.9 per cent in Tokyo.
Mr Maezawa, who was relatively unknown outside Japan until recently, has sought to raise his global profile to make Zozo a leading global clothing brand within a decade. In September, he was introduced as the first passenger on a flight to the moon scheduled for 2023, on a rocket built by Musk’s SpaceX.
Mr Maezawa made a splash in the art world in 2017 when he spent $110.5m on a single Jean-Michel Basquiat painting at a Sotheby’s auction, setting a record for an American artist’s work at the time. In October, He tweeted that he purchased a 1717 Stradivarius violin.
He tweets under the handle @yousuck2020 and his number of followers has surged to 4.27 million, from a little over 500,000 before his giveaway promotion.
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Release Date: April 10
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Vikram%20Vedha
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The biog
Born: near Sialkot, Pakistan, 1981
Profession: Driver
Family: wife, son (11), daughter (8)
Favourite drink: chai karak
Favourite place in Dubai: The neighbourhood of Khawaneej. “When I see the old houses over there, near the date palms, I can be reminded of my old times. If I don’t go down I cannot recall my old times.”
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE 12 BREAKAWAY CLUBS
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
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Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
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Honeymoonish
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Blue%20Beetle
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