Japanese Billionaire To Give Away $9 Million In 'Happiness Experiment'

Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa is giving away $9 million to some of his Twitter followers. The billionaire has promised to divide a billion yen (approximately $9 million) between 1,000 lucky people, who will be selected at random for his social experiment. The aim of the experiment, according to news website WNEP, is to see whether money improves happiness.

All people had to do to get the money was join microblogging platform Twitter and 'retweet' him before January 7.

Mr Maezawa tweet announcing the contest, posted on December 31, collected 4.1 million 'retweets'. In a YouTube video, he explained that a lottery will determine the lucky 1,000 from among the people who retweeted him, who will then be notified through direct message.

????謹賀新年????

【総額10億円】#前澤お年玉 100万円を1000人にプレゼントします！

100万円で皆さまの人生がよりハッピーになりますように。

応募方法は僕のフォローとこのツイートのリツイート。締切は1月7日23:59まで。

企画趣旨や当選条件などはYouTubeで説明してます。 https://t.co/kBgwwmJoaP pic.twitter.com/1Fr0Vq4i6Z

— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) December 31, 2019

Mr Maezawa, who gave away 100 million Japanese yen in a similar experiment last year, called the contest a "serious social trial" to see what impact a million yen could have on a person's life, reports CNN.

He urged winners to use the money "as they like" and answer regular questionnaires about how they are using it. The tech tycoon also called for social scientists to help analyse the experiment results.

Last year, Yusaku Maezawa giveaway tweet was 'retweeted' more than 5.6 million times.