Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire known for having been named as the first private passenger to orbit the moon, has now become tweeter of the most retweeted tweet of all time by announcing he will give 1 million yen ($9,200) to 100 people each.

The tweet dated Jan. 5 on what he called New Year's gift money had been retweeted more than 5 million times by Monday evening, as users were required to do so in order to obtain the money.

Maezawa, who runs online clothing store Zozotown, said in the twitter post that the money represents his appreciation of customers. But some people have criticized the campaign, saying he is buying followers.

The Japanese arm of Twitter Inc. said Maezawa's tweet does not violate its terms of service.

Maezawa attracted attention overseas when he was named by Elon Musk's Space X in September as the first private passenger on a flight to the moon orbit.