Elon Musk’s Vision: Twitter Transformed Into ‘X’
Elon Musk has announced his ambitious plan to rebrand Twitter as ‘X.’ This decision, however unexpected it may appear, has roots dating back to 1999 when Musk founded an ambitious venture called ‘X.com,’ with the visionary idea of revolutionizing the financial industry.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Twitter’s Grand Transformation
In his upcoming book, ‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,’ biographer Walter Isaacson delves deep into Musk’s fascination with ‘X.com’ and its grand concept. At the time, Musk envisioned ‘X.com’ as an all-encompassing platform that would offer a wide array of financial services, ranging from banking, digital purchases, credit cards, investments, loans, and much more. His ultimate goal was to treat money as data and securely record all transactions in real-time, making ‘X.com’ a potentially multitrillion-dollar company.
Isaacson revealed, “His concept for ‘X.com’ was grand. It would be a one-stop everything-store for all financial needs: banking, digital purchases, checking, credit cards, investments, and loans. Transactions would be handled instantly, with no waiting for payments to clear. His insight was that money is simply an entry into a database, and he wanted to devise a way that all transactions were securely recorded in real time.”
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"When his cousin Peter Rive visited in early 1999, he found Musk poring over books about the banking system. “I’m trying to… https://t.co/2PQr0qQhVG pic.twitter.com/WDdACBZTmc— Walter Isaacson (@WalterIsaacson) July 23, 2023
The journey to build ‘X.com’ was filled with challenges and relentless pressure, as Musk set tight deadlines and drove his colleagues to their limits. One of the notable features that gained immense popularity was the ability to send money via email, especially useful on platforms like eBay for paying strangers after making purchases. Following a merger with a company co-founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, ‘X.com’ transformed into the well-known PayPal. Despite this transformation, Musk insisted on retaining ‘X.com’ as the parent company’s name, underscoring his long-term vision of dominating the global financial system.
Elon Musk says if done right, X would become half of the global financial system. pic.twitter.com/HoslcIxRiP
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 24, 2023
Musk’s Vision for ‘X’
Musk’s interest in ‘X.com’ resurfaced, leading him to conceive the rebranding of Twitter under that iconic name. According to Isaacson, Musk perceives Twitter as a powerful catalyst to fulfil his original vision from 1999. His plan is to mold Twitter into a unique combination of a financial platform and a social network, powered by AI, offering services like payments, messaging, and much more, effectively transforming it into a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Musk’s decision to embrace ‘X’ as Twitter’s new identity is part of his grand scheme to transform the micro-blogging platform into a super app, reminiscent of China’s WeChat, which seamlessly integrates various services and functions within a single platform.
Already, the announcement of ‘X’ as the new face of Twitter has resulted in significant changes within the company. The iconic bird logo and the ‘Twitter’ brand name are being phased out, making way for the sleek and futuristic ‘X.’ Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, expressed her excitement about the transformation, emphasizing the potential of ‘X’ to create a global marketplace and connect people in unprecedented ways.
