Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Twitter is Dead: Elon Musk Completes Takeover and Rebrands to X.com

Transcript

Twitter is Dead: Elon Musk Completes Takeover and Rebrands to X.com · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey, everybody. Welcome back.
• 0:03
  To the. Elon Musk podcast This is a
• 0:05
  show. Where we?
• 0:06
  Discuss the critical crossroads. That shape?
• 0:09
  SpaceX. Tesla X, The Boring Company.
• 0:12
  And Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:15
  Elon Musk has officially rebranded Twitter asx.com,
• 0:19
  signifying the complete transformation of the social
• 0:22
  media platform. This move marks the end of
• 0:25
  Twitter's identity a year and a half after Musk acquired the
• 0:28
  company. Now, Musk announced on Friday
• 0:30
  morning that all core systems are now on x.com.
• 0:34
  This change means that Twitter.com no longer exists as
• 0:37
  a URL and users are redirected to x.com.
• 0:42
  Users logging onto the platform were greeted with a message,
• 0:44
  Welcome to x.com. We are letting you know that we
• 0:47
  are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection
• 0:51
  systems remain the same Now. This marks the final step in
• 0:55
  Musk's rebranding effort. The journey to rebrand Twitter
• 0:58
  began over a year ago and Musk's attorneys filed a court document
• 1:02
  on April 4th, 2023 stating Quote, Twitter Inc has been
• 1:06
  merged into X Corp and no longer exists.
• 1:10
  However, the website and app continued to operate under the
• 1:13
  Twitter name until recently. The rebranding initiative
• 1:16
  accelerated when Musk expressed dissatisfaction with the Twitter
• 1:19
  name, which he felt was outdated given the platform's evolution
• 1:22
  beyond a 140 character tweets to include longer posts and
• 1:27
  multimedia content. Musk had hinted at the creation
• 1:30
  of X, the Everything app, in October 2022, around the time he
• 1:34
  acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
• 1:37
  He introduced the X logo last August and attempted to replace
• 1:41
  the Twitter headquarters sign with a flashing X, though police
• 1:44
  intervened and halted the effort.
• 1:47
  Now the name change aligns with Musk's pattern of using the
• 1:50
  letter X in his other ventures such as SpaceX and the Tesla
• 1:54
  Model X, and reflects his long standing associated with x.com,
• 1:58
  a financial services website he started before Co founding
• 2:02
  PayPal. Now, Musk has indicated that X
• 2:05
  could evolve into a super app similar to China as WeChat,
• 2:09
  which integrate services like messaging, social media, mobile
• 2:12
  payments, car rides, and more. And However, Musk has not yet
• 2:16
  introduced any of these features on x.com, and the transformation
• 2:21
  of Twitter into X has been accompanied by significant
• 2:23
  changes and controversies. Musk has fired thousands of
• 2:26
  staff overseeing technical issues and reinstated accounts
• 2:30
  of controversial figures, including former President
• 2:33
  Donald Trump. Now European regulators have
• 2:35
  scrutinized Musk's management of X, particularly concerning
• 2:39
  misinformation and content moderation.
• 2:41
  The EU demanded an explanation for the reduction in content
• 2:44
  moderation staff, setting a deadline for the company to
• 2:47
  respond. The social media platforms
• 2:50
  rebranding to x.com follows Musk's history of branding
• 2:53
  ventures. In 1999, Musk attempted to
• 2:56
  create an online financial superstore named x.com, which
• 2:59
  later became part of PayPal, and the acquisition of Twitter in
• 3:03
  October 2022 marked the beginning of a tumultuous period
• 3:06
  for the company. Musk initially offered to buy
• 3:09
  Twitter at $54.20 per share, backed out over concerns about
• 3:16
  fake accounts, and then recommitted to the purchase.
• 3:19
  And after finalizing acquisition in October 2022, Musk
• 3:22
  implemented major changes, including significant layoffs
• 3:25
  and a shift in content moderation policies.
• 3:28
  He cited the need to reduce costs as a reason for these
• 3:30
  layoffs. Now, Musk's leadership of the
• 3:33
  platformnowx.com has been marked by a series of changes that have
• 3:36
  sparked under criticism. Now, despite the rebranding,
• 3:40
  remnants of Twitter's identities, such as support
• 3:43
  links, have lingered but are gradually being phased out.
• 3:46
  The rebranding process has not been without technical
• 3:48
  difficulties. Issues like automatic
• 3:51
  replacement of Twitter.com links in the iOS app and
• 3:54
  inconsistencies in URL redirection across multiple
• 3:57
  browsers have complicated the issue.
• 3:59
  Now users have experienced varying results with the
• 4:01
  rebranding depending on their browser and login status.
• 4:04
  Some encountered error messages or remained on Twitter.com
• 4:08
  instead of being redirected to x.com and must continues to
• 4:11
  develop X, incorporating new features like the AI chatbot
• 4:15
  croc which launched in Europe recently.
• 4:18
  And despite these additions, the full vision of X as an
• 4:20
  Everything app remains to be realized.
• 4:24
  Elon has finally completed the rebranding of X from Twitter,
• 4:30
  marking the end of Twitter's 17 year run.
• 4:34
  Musk has a vision for a super app, although many of the
• 4:38
  details of its future remain unclear and we're just gonna
• 4:42
  wait and find out what happens to x.com in the coming weeks.
• 4:52
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 4:54
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 4:56
  If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
• 4:59
  button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
• 5:01
  on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
• 5:03
  It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
• 5:06
  miss an episode. And each.
• 5:08
  Episode. Is about. 10 minutes or.
• 5:10
  Less. To get you caught up quickly and
• 5:12
  please if you want to support the show even more, go to
• 5:15
  patreon.com slash. Stage 0.
• 5:19
  And please take care of yourselves and each other and
• 5:21
  I'll see you tomorrow.