Tokyo: Billionaire Japanese tycoon and future space tourist Yusaku Maezawa said on Monday his tweet promising a cash giveaway of nearly $10,000 was the most retweeted ever.
The 43-year-old Maezawa posted a tweet on Saturday promising one million yen ($9,250) in cash each to 100 randomly selected followers who had retweeted it by Monday.
The tweet — now retweeted more than 4.3 million times — is the most shared in history, according to the entrepreneur. “Hit the new world record. Surpassed Twit-ter’s world record number of retweets (it was 3.55 million RTs before) and more people are still retweeting,” wrote the high-profile Maezawa.
The previous record-holder was an American teenager in 2017 trying to win a year’s supply of chicken nuggets from fast food chain Wendy’s, according to media.
In October, Maezawa said he paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket around the moon as early as 2023.
Maezawa will hitch a ride aboard Musk’s Big Falcon Rocket, which SpaceX has acknowledged may not be ready for human flight for at least five years. Known as a passionate art collector, he also plans to take around half a dozen artists with him on the trip. Maezawa is chief executive of Japan’s largest online fashion store.
