2023-07-24 12:57:17
X seems to be Elon Musk’s answer to everything. It’s the name of one of his first start-ups, the nickname of his son, part of the name of his space empire SpaceX and, henceforth, his vision of the future for Twitter.
The famous little blue bird, symbol of the microblogging site since its birth in 2006, flew away on Monday July 24… to make way for the X so dear to Elon Musk. At the same time, the X.com internet address now redirects to Twitter, the social network bought in October 2022 by Elon Musk for 44 billion dollars.
He sees X’s everywhere
The famous multi-billionaire had prepared the ground during the weekend, assuring the 150 million Internet users who follow him that he was ready to propel the site into the X era in 24 hours. It is therefore done with this new logo.
Elon Musk actually wanted to turn Twitter into X for a long time… without going into details. In October 2022, a few days before finalizing the takeover of Twitter, he had already suggested that the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet represented the future of his latest acquisition.
A moult that is not surprising when you know that the famous multi-billionaire sees (and puts) X everywhere… for more than twenty years. Thus, without X, there might never have been PayPal, the famous online payment solution. Indeed, the second start-up that the businessman founded in 1999 was called X.com and designated one of the first attempts to develop an online bank.
In 2000, Elon Musk agreed to merge his site with that of his main rival at the time, called Confinity, one of the co-founders of which is another controversial Silicon Valley star: Peter Thiel. The latter took advantage of Elon Musk’s honeymoon with his first wife Justine Musk in September 2000 to oust him from the post of CEO, take his place and rename X.com to PayPal.
A putsch that propelled X.com into technological limbo until 2017. That year, PayPal finally authorized Elon Musk to buy this domain name for a sum that has never been made public.
Elon Musk then took six years to find a purpose for X.com. Indeed, until this weekend, the site displayed a simple blank page.
Twitter is far from the only aspect of Elon Musk’s empire to be in the grip of X. It was no coincidence that in 2002 he decided to call his space exploration company SpaceX. Rebelote in 2015 when the boss of Tesla launched the Model X, the first SUV of the brand of electric cars. At the time, Elon Musk claimed to have opted for this name because he found that this letter made his vehicle more “sexy”.
From his son to WeChat
He also let the X into his private life since this is the nickname of his son, born in 2020 and whose full name is X Æ A-Xii. Indirectly, this letter also hovers over the life of her daughter – Exa Dark Sideræl – whom her parents have called “Y” since 2023.
But with Twitter, the “muskian” obsession for X has gained in substance. The transition from the little blue bird to the letter of the alphabet would be a prelude to the creation of a universal application. “The takeover of Twitter will accelerate the establishment of X, a super-application”, tweeted Elon Musk in October 2022.
The first stage of this plan was carried out in March 2023, when the whimsical boss of the social network created X.corp. This new structure is supposed to oversee all of Elon Musk’s efforts to achieve the creation of this “universal application”. X.corp currently integrates Twitter and X.ai, a new artificial intelligence company.
To understand Elon Musk’s attraction to universal applications, you have to look in the direction of China. The former Middle Empire is also the empire of super-apps. The most famous is WeChat, a service that in the West is a little too quickly described as the Chinese version of WhatsApp.
In reality, WeChat is a digital Swiss army knife. “This app can be used to communicate, share content, buy products, send money, and even file for divorce,” says Hamza Mudassir, co-founder of British start-up consulting firm Platypodes and professor of entrepreneurial strategy at Cambridge University.
These are overly popular catch-all services in China and “more broadly in Asia”, assures this expert. WeChat, for example, has almost 1.3 billion users. These applications are so central to digital life that the authorities can let them manage much more official services such as the payment of fines.
X, the great unknown
An economic model that has enough to make an Elon Musk salivate in search of additional sources of income. “Twitter has shown its limits in attracting revenue and we must therefore think about diversifying”, assures Hamza Mudassir.
But for the West, the principle of a “super-app” is a big leap into the unknown. None of the web giants has yet ventured into this field. “In China and Asia, it has long been accepted as going hand in hand with mobile internet,” emphasizes Hamza Mudassir. Nothing like the United States or Europe where consumers are used to using an application for each use.
This is the Amazon model: the American giant “diversified – food sales, digital readers, film development, music distribution – but has provided an application for each use”, recalls Hamza Mudassir.
For the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Postthe Western Internet user would be more reluctant than his Asian counterpart to put all this data in the hands of a single application, from his purchasing habits to his relationship problems or even his taxi journeys.
Elon Musk seems to think that time is over. For him, the North American or European Internet user would be ready to take the plunge “provided that he finds it simpler than going from one app to another for all his online procedures”, believes Hamza Mudassir.
Anyway, the Twitter ad revenue is plummeting. Under these conditions, “might as well try the WeChat model”, believes this specialist in business strategy. Even if, as often, X represents a great unknown.
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