Billionaire Japanese tycoon and future space tourist Yusaku Maezawa said 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 ¥1 million ($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.
ZOZOTOWN新春セールが史上最速で取扱高100億円を先ほど突破!!日頃の感謝を込め、僕個人から100名様に100万円【総額1億円のお年玉】を現金でプレゼントします。応募方法は、僕をフォローいただいた上、このツイートをRTするだけ。受付は1/7まで。当選者には僕から直接DMします! #月に行くならお年玉 pic.twitter.com/cKQfPPbOI3
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) January 5, 2019
“Hit the new world record. Surpassed Twitter’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 and is the 18th richest person in Japan, with an estimated fortune of $2 billion, according to business magazine Forbes.