Musk's Visionary Quest to Redefine Social Media: The Birth of "X"
Elon Musk's audacious gamble to reshape Twitter is about to enter a riskier and more transformative phase, with stakes higher than ever before.
Why it matters: Musk is relentless in his pursuit to overhaul Twitter completely and create an extraordinary amalgamation of a currency-less marketplace, a dynamic public square, and a captivating video content hub—a vision he envisions as an all-encompassing "X" app. Fast forward one year: Twitter will no longer bear its familiar identity; instead, it will metamorphose into "X," an expansive social universe orchestrated by Musk, encapsulating 24 years of his innovative ideas and boldest fantasies. In Musk's visionary descriptions, "X" will encompass the best elements of Twitter, Substack, YouTube, PayPal, Amazon, TikTok, WeChat, and Baidu—all seamlessly combined under the emblem of the letter "X." Reality check: While Musk has talked extensively about building new features atop Twitter, his actions during the nine months of his tenure as CEO have been relatively limited. Behind the scenes: Walter Isaacson spent nearly three years closely observing Musk, dedicating long stretches of time—up to 12-hour sessions, day after day—in the creation of his forthcoming book, "Elon Musk," to be released on Sept. 12. Isaacson disclosed that Musk has been meticulously devising the rebranding to "X" for over nine months, even before finalizing the acquisition of Twitter. "He firmly believes it can become a trillion-dollar company—effortlessly," Isaacson revealed. "This idea has been brewing in his mind for 25 years—a financial platform that empowers everyone to profit from their content." "He envisions revolutionizing journalism by providing an alternative to subscription models, enabling people to make easy payments for the content they desire." In Isaacson's book, he recounts Musk divulging his plans to change Twitter's name to X.com two weeks before officially taking over the platform in October. Musk has been fixated on eliminating the Twitter bird logo ever since his first visit to the company's San Francisco headquarters, accompanied by Isaacson. "It was like a rugged cowboy entering a Starbucks," Isaacson reminisced. Conference rooms bore names like Aviary, Tern, Bluebird, Canary, and Mallard. Musk remarked, "There are too many birds here." Between the lines: While some found the bird logo witty and whimsical, cleverly playing on the company's name and essence, Musk interpreted it as a sign of employees lacking bold ambition and a genuine sense of mission. "He removed all the 'woke' T-shirts from the cabinets and scoffed at the concept of psychologically secure workplaces," Isaacson described Musk's behavior while exploring his new domain. "It was like watching a movie on fast forward," said Isaacson. "I could see his frustration with the company's culture escalating." Musk declared, "We must replace this with an unwavering sense of urgency." On the first day of the "X" rebranding, the bird-themed conference rooms were swiftly renamed to eXposure, eXult, and s3Xy, as reported by The New York Times.