Twitter has officially become X.com under Elon Musk’s leadership, marking the end of the Twitter social platform as we knew it and sparking questions about whether the Twitter we once loved is gone forever. The domain has been fully switched over to X.com, erasing the last traces of the bird logo that once symbolized the platform's identity. Does this mean Twitter is dead? Let’s explore!
Twitter started from humble beginnings. It emerged from Odeo, a podcasting company founded in 2004 by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. When Apple announced in 2005 that it would add podcasts to iTunes, Odeo's leadership realized they couldn't compete. So, they looked for new ideas. One of Odeo’s employees, Jack Dorsey, suggested creating a short message service (SMS) where people could share small, blog-like updates with friends. Glass came up with the name "Twttr." On March 21, 2006, Dorsey sent the first-ever tweet: “Just setting up my twttr.” By July 2006, the full version of Twitter was launched.
Twitter quickly grew in popularity and became a public company in September 2013. The company announced its decision to go public in a tweet, and by November of that year, Twitter's initial public offering (IPO) raised $1.8 billion, giving it a market value of $31 billion. The platform traded under the ticker symbol TWTR.
The transition from Twitter to X was not sudden. Musk had long harbored dreams of creating an all-encompassing app named X, dating back to his first ownership of X.com in 1999 when he co-founded an online bank that later became PayPal. He was the main stack holder of the company, and In 2017, he bought the X.com domain name from PayPal. When he bought Twitter, it was clear that this was his opportunity to resurrect that dream. As Musk stated, the name "Twitter" no longer made sense for a platform that now supports extensive video content, voice calls, and, potentially, in the future, financial transactions similar to China’s WeChat.
Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2023
The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like…
Elon Musk, who joined Twitter in 2009, became one of its most influential users, gaining over 85 million followers by 2022. Now, he has a massive 195.1 million followers. In October 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, paying $54.20 per share. His first moves as the new owner included laying off about half of the company's staff and introducing a paid verification system, where users could buy the blue check mark for $8 per month.
In April 2023, Twitter officially rebranded as X. The familiar bird logo was replaced, and the ticker symbol TWTR was delisted from major stock exchanges. X is now a private company controlled by Musk, and “tweets” are now called “posts.”
The bird logo has changed, the URL has changed, the ticker symbol TWTR has been delisted, Musk has set out to transform it into an "everything app" under the X.com banner, and yes, now we can say Twitter is dead.
Since Musk took over, X has changed in many ways. While new features have been added, the platform has also faced criticism. There has been an increase in hate speech, a controversial approach to user verification, and changes that have confused long-time users. The platform is no longer the Twitter that once shaped global conversations and influenced politics and culture.
Despite the Twitter name change, X remains a significant part of the digital landscape. While some may mourn the loss of Twitter, it’s clear that this transformation was inevitable under Musk's leadership. The platform that once was Twitter is indeed dead, but in its place, X is emerging as something new and different.
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