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  • Twitter 'X' owner & SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is obsessed with the letter X; why?

Twitter 'X' owner & SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is obsessed with the letter X; why?

Micro-blogging social media platform Twitter on Monday launched its new logo X, replacing the blue bird with a white X on a black background.

Digital Desk
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Elon Musk X Twitter
Twitter owner Elon Musk bid adieu to the bird and replaced it with an X | Image: AP | Image: self

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's fascination with the 24th letter of the alphabet is evident in his ventures, starting with the Tesla Model X, followed by SpaceX, and now Twitter's rebranding to X.com. This has led to questions about his affinity for this particular letter and his decision to replace Twitter's well-known logo, the Twitter blue bird, with a simple and generic letter.

Announcing that the micro-blogging platform will be called ‘X’, Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, said on July 24: “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” the former NBC Universal executive tweeted further.

The internet domain x.com also redirects to twitter.com. Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, told Associated Press that the move is “not surprising given Musk’s long history with the name ‘X’”.

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Musk's beloved X.com

Elon Musk's intrigue with the letter X can be traced back to one of his earliest ventures, a company he founded in 1999 called X.com. Initially, X.com served as an online banking and financial services platform. Eventually, through a merger with a competitor, it transformed into the well-known payment platform we now recognise as PayPal. 

Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, told NPR: “Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company that back then because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it”.

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Sharing excerpts from his upcoming biography on Musk, author Walter Isaacson tweeted: “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.”

Musk and his 'X' family

In 2017, Elon Musk repurchased the domain "X.com" from PayPal, expressing his gratitude with a tweet that said, "Thanks PayPal for allowing me to buy back X.com! No plans right now, but it has great sentimental value to me."

The letter X has consistently made appearances in Musk's other ventures. He is the CEO and founder of SpaceX, originally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. In 2020, Musk and his former partner, Canadian musician Grimes, named their son X Æ A-12 Musk. However, due to California's laws regarding names, the newborn's name was later modified to X Æ A-Xii.

Recently, Musk made another significant announcement about rebranding Twitter's household blue bird logo. This decision comes shortly after he launched a new company called xAI, an artificial intelligence company that has been seen as a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Bye Bye Birdie

Elon Musk had been quite transparent about his vision of transforming Twitter into an "everything app" called X, even before he acquired the platform for a staggering $44 billion on October 28, 2022.

On October 5 of the previous year, Musk tweeted about his intentions, stating, "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app."

According to Elon Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, the billionaire expressed his excitement about implementing X.com as it was originally intended, using Twitter as a catalyst for this transformation, ahead of his takeover of the platform.

In April of this year, a filing in a federal court case in California revealed that Twitter had been renamed to X Corp, as reported by NPR. Around the same time, Musk posted a tweet containing only the letter 'X' to his millions of followers, further fueling speculation about his plans for the platform.

In May, when Linda Yaccarino was announced as Twitter's new CEO, Musk welcomed her with a tweet expressing his eagerness to work together to transform the platform into X, referring to it as the "everything app."

Elon Musk envisions creating a "super app" similar to China's popular WeChat, which offers a wide range of services on a single platform, including messaging, food ordering, streaming, and payments.

Musk has playfully mentioned his affinity for the letter X in a tweet on Sunday, stating, "Not sure what subtle clues gave it away, but I like the letter X." Additionally, he replaced Twitter's iconic bird logo on his handle with a flickering video of the letter 'X,' further emphasizing his dedication to the rebranding efforts.

The timing of the revamp coincides with the launch of Meta's new app, Threads, which has emerged as a new competitor for Twitter this month. Additionally, this latest move is just one in a series of modifications initiated by Musk after he acquired the social media platform.

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