Why Musk’s X will be More Disruptive Than You Think

On July 23rd, Elon Musk shocked the social media world with the announcement that he plans to replace Twitter’s iconic blue bird with an ‘X’ to symbolize the ‘everything’ app. In a series of posts on his own Twitter account, Musk declared that this change would be in effect globally starting Monday. The change harkens back to the billionaire CEO’s long history with the letter ‘X’: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” In March, Musk said that he thought it was possible for his company “to become the biggest financial institution in the world.”

Musk tweeted last October. This sentiment is further exemplified by his rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is commonly known simply as “SpaceX”, and his 1999 financial services startup, X.com, which is now the well-known, and widely-used “Paypal”. However, despite Musk’s enthusiasm for the change, those understanding Twitter’s audience have been harsh in their criticism of it, calling it a “fitting end to a phenomenal unwinding of an iconic brand and business.” We will have to wait and see how this big shake-up affects the platform and its users.

Early Days of Twitter

Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, along with Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, in 2006. It was originally created as a way to send out short messages to a group of people. In time Twitter became a short burst of inconsequential information and chirps from birds, a real-time microblogging platform. With 336 million monthly active users at its peak, it became widely used for sharing news. Its competitive advantage was that it provided a more conversational and engaging experience compared to Facebook and Instagram with just 280 characters limit.

Musk’s Fascination with the Letter ‘X’

In 2000, following a merger of X.com and Confinity, the venture-backed company co-founded by Peter Thiel that owned the PayPal program, Elon Musk became CEO of PayPal. Although Thiel quickly resigned due to a rift over Musk’s decision to have the system run on the Microsoft platform instead of Unix-based software, Musk saw this as an opportunity to expand the company’s scope further than just a money transfer service. As stated by Max Chafkin, author of the 2021 book, “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power”, Musk wanted to make the letter X more prominent in the brand and branding and, eventually, phase out the PayPal name completely. He never got the chance to fulfill his goal. He was eventually ousted as CEO. Musk eventually got this way, going on to found SpaceX, a space exploration company in 2002 and X.ai an AI company in 2014.

A Perfect Execution

It’s likely that the proposed name change isn’t something Musk came up with without some thought and processing. While the ideas may come quickly, they are very carefully planned and have been for some time. Musk has long wanted to create a payment and banking system, something he wasn’t able to do at PayPal. His goal is to make this platform bigger than Twitter in a year or two – an impressive feat that deserves recognition. This isn’t the first time Musk has taken over a struggling and beleaguered company. In 2004 Musk joined Tesla as it was facing financial issues and issues getting anything to market. In 2008 Musk had become CEO, and helped bring the Roadster, Tesla’s first production vehicle, to market. Today As witty this article Tesla’s market cap is just shy of $800 billion. Even with recent drops in its share price it is still larger than all automotive companies combined.

Although I don’t necessarily love the ‘X’, to me it sounds better than Twitter which sounds like something Jack Dorsey and co. might have come up with on a bender of an evening. It probably goes in line with Elon’s “SpaceX” and “xAI”.

A Promising Future

One good thing about these big changes coming to the company is there’s a chance the transformation taking place to the platform will finally make it useful for the other 99.99% of us. Twitter has largely been a platform for politicians, CEOs and yes, big shots like Elon to share their plans and argue while the rest of us follow like ants. Because if you’re an average person your voice didn’t matter on Twitter.

I’m personally looking forward to learning more about the ability to complete payments and do banking. We should think of these changes like a PayPal 2.0 project. Features that will finally make this type of platform useful for the rest of us.

The Future is Online Payments

The emergence of online payments and banking services offered by Chinese-based services like WeChat has revolutionized the way commercial activities are conducted and paved the way for a more efficient and secure form of transaction management. Individuals have the ability to quickly and securely send and receive funds from friends and family, while customers can seamlessly access payment services as well as other banking services via the platform. This offers a level of convenience and efficiency that is unrivalled.

In a 2022 interview, Musk divulged details of his revolutionary new platform, X, which he hopes will be a direct rival of WeChat, a Chinese microblogging, banking, and financial services site. Musk’s vision is to strategically combine two of the world’s most established digital mediums, Twitter and PayPal, creating one powerful platform. With a current user base of 450 million, this project could become a defining powerhouse in the digital sphere. Not only does the venture possess the infrastructure to succeed, but it will also mark yet another game-changing invention from Musk that could potentially revolutionize the way in which people access and interact with social media and financial services.

Musk’s vision is to strategically combine two of the world's most established digital mediums, Twitter and PayPal, creating one powerful platform.

In the years to come, more and more businesses will embrace online payment and banking systems, further revolutionizing the way businesses operate, and creating a more user-friendly and secure way to manage financial transactions. Musk sees the trend and wants to step in to get ahead of the curve before it takes off in North America and Europe (which is behind the rest of the world). He knows the money is not in microblogging and advertising. It never was. The money is in microblogging and online payments. Microblogging will simply be a loss liter that regularly brings people back to the platform.

Conclusion

Although Elon Musk’s plans to bring the letter ‘X’ to Twitter have been met with fierce criticism, his enthusiasm for the change and his history of turning seemingly improbable ideas into massive successes point to the possibility that he may just pull it off. If successful, the transformation of Twitter would be a sight to behold: a once beleaguered company topping out at $50 billion rising up to five times that, further solidifying its place as one of the world’s most revered social networks. Of course, at this point, all we can do is wait and see what happens next.