Final week marked the top of an period in social media, and it’s fairly seemingly that you just didn’t even understand it.

On Friday, X, the platform previously often known as Twitter, converted from the “twitter.com” area identify to “x.com” for all of its major programs.

No, that’s not the brand new X brand, that’s an previous design that X proprietor Elon Musk got here up with again in 1999, when he first began engaged on what he needed X to be.

Sure, Elon has been engaged on X, and has needed to launch a website beneath the X.com URL. for 25 years.

And now, it’s a step nearer, at the very least in identify, which additionally means that almost all of what Twitter as soon as was is now gone, in presence, in spirit, and many others.

Although successfully, Twitter nonetheless stays. For many common customers who don’t pay an excessive amount of thoughts to the broader possession particulars of social apps, X is identical because it ever was, offering a direct feed of real-time updates, on a variety of matters, each day.

And it’s nonetheless the chief on this house. If there’s a serious world information occasion, X is the place most individuals nonetheless flip, whereas for sports activities protection and engagement, dwell TV present dialogue, leisure business information, and many others., X remains to be the place to be.

Varied challengers have tried to step in to assemble up solid offs who’ve been lower than proud of Elon’s modifications on the app, however none have caught as much as X as but. And whereas X itself isn’t rising (X has been sitting on 250 million each day lively customers since November 2022), it’s additionally not shrinking, which means that none of its varied challengers have really taken its place as but. Some have seen relative success, most have collapsed. However X, whether or not you prefer it or not, whether or not you utilize it or not, stays a related consideration.

And whereas Elon’s varied modifications on the app have been controversial, there have been positives as effectively.

Group Notes has been a key spotlight, with Elon rapidly transferring to make the crowd-sourced fact-checking system, previously referred to as “Birdwatch”, into a much bigger moderation aspect.

The advantage of this for X is two-fold. For one, it supplies a way for customers so as to add fact-checks, and to primarily reasonable themselves, versus X administration having to make calls on what’s and isn’t acceptable within the app.

It additionally reduces X’s reliance on moderation employees, and with Musk seeking to lower employees as a lot as completely doable, this acts as an necessary cost-saving measure.

And it’s useful. Posts with Group Notes see much less engagement, and fewer general amplification, so it’s an efficient instrument in lowering the unfold of misinformation, at the very least to some extent.

But, on the similar time, it nonetheless takes some time for Notes to look, and if any platform truly wants real-time, rapid moderation to restrict the unfold of misinformation, it’s X. Which implies that Group Notes just isn’t an answer, as such, however one other aspect. But Elon and Co. appear to be placing extra reliance on it than they most likely ought to.

However it has been a optimistic growth, whereas it’s additionally superb that X continues to perform comparatively easily, with 80% fewer employees.

That, in itself, is a powerful feat, so whereas there have been controversies, the shift to X has additionally seen positives, which have modified the platform for the higher.

In some methods.

In others, X has turn out to be quite a bit worse.

Varied reviews have indicated that hate speech and abuse are on the rise within the app, and at present, regardless of Elon’s large employees cuts, X remains to be not on monitor for profitability.

It had been, in response to Elon and X CEO Linda Yaccarino, at one stage earlier this 12 months. However Musk’s controversial stances and opinions proceed to push advertisers away, and with X Premium sign-ups nonetheless stagnating, and X beneath large debt burden on account of Musk’s buy, it’s exhausting to see the way it’ll get itself again on monitor.

For context, X Corp, the dad or mum firm of X, is at present on the hook for curiosity repayments of round $1.5 billion per 12 months. X introduced in $2.5 billion in whole income in 2023, so you possibly can see how, mixed with working bills, X is already up towards it.

However Elon has a plan, and given his previous successes with seemingly unattainable enterprise ventures, no person’s prepared to totally wager towards him simply but.

Again in 1999, when Musk initially got here up together with his X.com imaginative and prescient, he outlined a extra superior on-line banking portal, which might primarily take all parts of a daily financial institution, and convey them on-line. Musk’s view was that this could revolutionize all the monetary business, increasing PayPal (of which Musk was additionally a founding associate) to the subsequent stage.

However it by no means occurred, although that continues to be the important thing focus of Musk’s broader X plan occasion as we speak.

Certainly, final October, Musk reiterated his on-line banking plan:

“Once I say funds, I truly imply somebody’s total monetary life. If it entails cash, it’ll be on our platform, cash or securities or no matter. So, it’s not similar to ship $20 to my buddy. I’m speaking about, like, you gained’t want a checking account.”

X.com is at present within the technique of securing cash transmitter licenses in every U.S. state, which is step one in the direction of this grand imaginative and prescient, although it nonetheless has a protracted technique to go earlier than X.com turns into the banking framework that Musk envisions.

However perhaps X can do it. Perhaps, all of those parts will come collectively at some stage, and Elon will carry his grand plan to fruition, regardless of the doubters.

And perhaps, too, his “free speech” aligned method will catch on, and X will achieve extra traction, and perhaps the upcoming U.S. election would be the occasion that swings extra individuals in X’s favor, and issues will flip for the app.

However regardless, X.com is now right here, instead of what Twitter.com had as soon as been. They don’t seem to be the identical platform, and they don’t seem to be aiming for a similar issues.

And whereas you should still discover some fowl references within the app, Elon appears to decided to stomp out its historical past, versus paying homage to what turned some of the recognizable manufacturers on this planet.