For all the controversy surrounding his purchase of Twitter Inc., Elon Musk has at least one thing right: Twitter really is "like open-sourcing the news.”

The world’s richest man has long been an advocate for "citizen journalism,” but since his takeover of the social media site he’s been particularly talkative on the idea of ordinary people, rather than what he terms media elites, being the ones who surface information.

The history of Twitter in its second-biggest market shows his instinct here is likely correct. Little attention has been paid internationally to the impact of Musk’s purchase in Japan, but in 2021, the country contributed around 13% of revenue, nearly as a much on a per capita basis as the U.S. It was the only nation apart from the U.S. that the firm broke out separately in its 10-K annual report, with sales growing 23% from the previous year.