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Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's Tweet Becomes Most Retweeted

Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's Tweet Becomes Most Retweeted

Yusaku Maezawa pledged to share nearly $1,000,000 between 100 people who shared the tweet

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Anyone remember Carter Wilkerson? He was pretty desperate for some chicken nuggets - so much so that he embarked on a mission to get 18 million retweets in exchange for a year's supply of them from fast food chain, Wendy's.

He managed to get around 3.6 million, which is a very good effort, we're sure you'd agree. So good, in fact, that he became the Tweeter Of The Most Retweeted Tweet.

But now Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has taken that tongue twister of a title from him.

Maezawa, founder of Japanese online clothing retailer Zozo Inc, pledged to share 100 million yen ($923,900 / £724,500) with 100 lucky retweeters - and oh, how the people flocked before him.

Funny what happens when you add a little (or pretty hefty in this case) incentive for people, isn't it?

What a nice guy, you might be thinking. And that's all well and good but let's not forget that his website will see a huge surge in traffic, he will gain hundreds of thousands of followers and well, it's being publicised across the world. So it looks like the guy's got it all figured out.

It would be nice though, wouldn't it? £7,245 ($9,245) in your back pocket just after Christmas. Tempted to retweet, I won't lie.

The BBC reported that the post was seemingly a celebration of his new website, Zozotown, and its success at making 10 billion yen - in other words $92.3m, or £72.3m - so he's actually giving away a fraction of his earnings, isn't he?

Maezawa rose to fame as part of punk band 'Switch Style' but he earned his cash in the fashion biz and has racked up a personal wealth close to $3bn (£2.35bn). Not short of a bob or two then?

It's thought that Maezawa spends his fortune on art.
PA

Back in September 2018 it was revealed that Maezawa would be tech billionaire Elon Musk's first customer in his quest to travel around the moon.

Maezawa is signed up for a trip, known as the 'moon loop', which could take place as soon as 2023. And he's not just bagged a spot for himself either - oh no, he's bought all the seats on Musk's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).

He will be inviting artists from a number of different fields including painters, directors and musicians.

If it all goes to plan this will be the first manned mission to the moon since the Apollo 17 landing back in 1972.

The amount of cash Mr Maezawa had to splash to get his spot aboard hasn't been discussed but Musk said it was 'a lot of money'.

He can afford it.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: elon musk, News, Interesting