Final week marked the tip of an period in social media, and it’s fairly doubtless that you just didn’t even notice it.

On Friday, X, the platform previously referred to 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No, that’s not the brand new X emblem, that’s an outdated design that X proprietor Elon Musk got here up with again in 1999, when he first began engaged on what he wished X to be.

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

And now, it’s a step nearer, not less than in identify, which additionally means that almost all of what Twitter as soon as was is now gone, in presence, in spirit, and so forth.

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 similar because it ever was, offering a direct feed of real-time updates, on a variety of matters, on daily basis.

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, stay TV present dialogue, leisure trade information, and so forth., X continues to be the place to be.

Varied challengers have tried to step in to assemble up solid offs who’ve been lower than pleased with Elon’s adjustments 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 every day energetic customers since November 2022), it’s additionally not shrinking, which means that none of its varied challengers have actually 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 adjustments on the app have been controversial, there have been positives as effectively.

Group Notes has been a key spotlight, with Elon shortly shifting to make the crowd-sourced fact-checking system, previously known as “Birdwatch”, into an even bigger moderation factor.

The advantage of this for X is two-fold. For one, it offers a method for customers so as to add fact-checks, and to primarily average 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 workers, and with Musk seeking to reduce workers as a lot as completely potential, this acts as an essential cost-saving measure.

And it’s useful. Posts with Group Notes see much less engagement, and fewer total amplification, so it’s an efficient device in decreasing the unfold of misinformation, not less than to some extent.

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

But it surely has been a optimistic enlargement, whereas it’s additionally wonderful that X continues to perform comparatively easily, with 80% fewer workers.

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 develop into so much worse.

Varied reviews have indicated that hate speech and abuse are on the rise within the app, and at the moment, regardless of Elon’s huge workers cuts, X continues 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 laborious to see the way it’ll get itself again on monitor.

For context, X Corp, the dad or mum firm of X, is at the moment 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 may see how, mixed with working bills, X is already up in opposition to it.

However Elon has a plan, and given his previous successes with seemingly unimaginable enterprise ventures, no one’s keen to completely wager in opposition to 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 components of a daily financial institution, and produce them on-line. Musk’s view was that this may revolutionize your entire monetary trade, increasing PayPal (of which Musk was additionally a founding accomplice) to the subsequent stage.

But it surely by no means occurred, although that continues to be the important thing focus of Musk’s broader X plan occasion immediately.

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

“Once I say funds, I truly imply somebody’s complete 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 pal. I’m speaking about, like, you received’t want a checking account.”

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

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

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

However regardless, X.com is now right here, rather than 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 chicken references within the app, Elon appears to decided to stomp out its historical past, versus paying homage to what grew to become one of the recognizable manufacturers on the earth.