I also think that Eugen puts too much weight on brand recognition. Specially as Mastodon is not as widely known as it should.
Not sure this tracks. Mastodon, on the fediverse, is stupidly dominant. Like, numerically, the fediverse is mastodon with some other stuff. Even in absolute terms, mastodon’s numbers alone qualify it as a social media platform in its own right, though a small one.
Part of this is mastodon’s brand recognition. Eugen has been subtly but surely astute with his business decisions, I’d say, walking the line between being a non-profit FOSS project and a normal business (on the mastodon webpage, and now in media, Eugen identifies himself as the CEO).
And now, European governments are using his software to establish their presence on the web, where you should recall Eugen is European (German).
Compared to Meta/Threads, sure Mastodon’s brand recognition can’t compete. But I wouldn’t underestimate the brand recognition he’s got. Lots of people now know the name “mastodon”.
By “as it should”, I mean “as society in general should recognise it”. Context here is important - Mastodon is dominant in comparison with other parts of the Fediverse, but still tiny in comparison with Threads, Twitter and the likes. It’s a medium fish surrounded by tiny fish, saying “okay, that shark over there may join our pond”.