Japanese Billionaire’s Yen for Publicity Leads to New Most Shared Tweet of All Time

A challenge from a Japanese billionaire prompted Twitter users to retweet his sentiment in the millions.

Billionaire tweet
Yusaku Maezawa is now the world's most retweeted man. (Alessandro Di Ciommo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images

Yusaku Maezawa, founder and CEO of Japan’s largest online fashion retailer, Zozotown, promised to hand out ¥100 million ($920,000) in cash to 100 people who follow his account and retweet his post by Jan. 7.

If his goal was to pad out his social media presence, his stunt certainly worked.

His original post has nearly 5.5 million retweets as of Tuesday, Quartz reported, making it the most shared tweet of all time.

The monetary incentive seemed to significantly help Maezawa’s tweet. The post has now officially surpassed that kid who wanted free nuggets from Wendy’s for a year (3.8 million retweets) and Ellen DeGeneres’s 2014 Oscar’s selfie (3.3 million).

The Japanese billionaire’s tweet competition was a way for him to thank Zozotown’s customers after its New Year’s Eve sale helped the company reach ¥10 billion yen in sales at the fastest pace ever.

The tweet was hashtagged “a New Year’s gift for going to the moon.”

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