Monday, July 24th 2023
Elon Musk Announces that Twitter Will Change Name to X
After having paid US$44 billion for Twitter, it appears Elon Musk isn't happy with Twitter being Twitter and is now getting ready to change the name of the social media platform to X. For those that aren't familiar with Elon Musk's company history, X was his online bank that preceded PayPal, or rather X.com, a domain name that is still owned by Elon Musk and currently redirects to Twitter. It appears that Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino have big plans for X, at least according to several posts by the Twitter CEO.
Yaccaranio in a post on Twitter states that "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." Make of this what you want, but it appears that Twitter is about to go through some major changes, some that had already been mentioned by Musk as early as last year. Time will tell if this will be a direction that Twitter's users want things to go, or if the platform will end up dying a death of a thousand cuts.
Sources:
@elonmusk on Twitter, @lindayacc on Twitter
Yaccaranio in a post on Twitter states that "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." Make of this what you want, but it appears that Twitter is about to go through some major changes, some that had already been mentioned by Musk as early as last year. Time will tell if this will be a direction that Twitter's users want things to go, or if the platform will end up dying a death of a thousand cuts.
178 Comments on Elon Musk Announces that Twitter Will Change Name to X
It'd be bullshit con artist if the cars DID NOT drive themselves at all. If they DIDN'T get 400 miles to the charge. If they DIDN'T get their charging plug adopted by essentially the entire industry. If the rockets NEVER landed without a pilot and if they ALWAYS exploded.
If Elon was a conman he never would have bothered with Twitter.
These are cars that crash into the side of semi-trucks on a regular basis. They literally are blind to what's in front of them, even more-so now that they've LOL removed RADAR and are selling it as "Vision Only future of AI" (aka: more bullshit). -30% when the temperature is above 100F. And -30% loss when its too cold. Sooooo... basically everywhere outside of San Francisco, its got way, way, way less advertised range. Its more proof of his bullshittery.
Etc. etc. etc. You know he tried to bullshit his way out of the contract of buying Twitter, right? It only happened because the judge forced him. And now he's bullshitted you into thinking this was his masterplan all along. We all knew in August 2022 that he didn't want Twitter anymore and that this deal for $44 Billion was a bad deal.
The only reason he ever bought Twitter was that a judge finally got tired of his bullshit and forced him to execute upon a signed contract. That's it. And now we have to deal with Elon Musk's bullshit into thinking that he knows what he's doing on this whole Twitter fiasco. But that's okay, we've reached the far more interesting, and entertaining, arc of this situation. The mask is coming off and more-and-more people are realizing the truth and wisening up to Elon's Bullshit.
He had a good run though, I'll give ya that.
Count me as dumb.
I'm only in a few specific Discord servers but that's all. And forums of course. Big social media is to argue about politics and the current thing on mainstream media, either by engaging in an endless flame war or sinking yourself in an echo chamber where you're constantly reassured by a flock that believes in the same things you do.
Sure there might be interesting groups but in the end it all comes down to following the same people you know irl, otherwise it's screaming into the void.
After thinking about it for several hours I think the X likely is symbolic as in he is going to kill all the birds implying the mockingbird media powered by forces use using twitter as a political weapon that prevents the platform from providing a place for civil discourse.
Of course, now that the months have passed, we now know that the fake news claim by Rahul Ligma is all fake, and that Elon Musk intended to fire 80% of staff as part of his master plan to reinvent Twitter. Those employees were just sitting around drinking coffee or whatever and obviously not needed.
Or as that old novel liked to put it: Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.
I reckon that by now, Mark Zuckerberg realizes that acquiring Instagram may have very well been his best investment, it will keep Meta afloat as the "metaverse" he drummed up has ultimately failed to spring, WhatsApp, despite its strong user-base is ultimately not even close to a profitable venture and their main product, Facebook, has a negative perception amongst newer generations and has been abandoned by a large amount of people who don't agree with the overbearing "community standards" - something that Musk's Twitter has absolutely aced so far.
These platforms hold immense power, think about it - not even with YouTube's popularity and the integration of the Shorts feature has stopped TikTok's exponential growth. Something similar happened with pre-Musk Twitter, the former board of directors made of the platform hostile to a certain segment of individuals, putting intense pressure on them with a series of high-profile expulsions intended to clearly state that they were not welcome to stay and eventually went on to create Twitter clones of their own, none of which had the slightest impact in the active user base.
It's a numbers' game, Musk is anything but a fool, he is acutely aware that people kvetching about Twitter no longer being an eco chamber and how evil he may be is not going to have anyone leave the platform, especially not those who would raise their hand against it - he realizes that to drum up anti-Musk, anti-Twitter sentiment, these influencers require the one thing that they are actively campaigning against - their reach, which is comprised of active Twitter account holders. This means that the numbers game was won before it even started, the more page views and interactions, the more likely an user is to stick by, regardless of their current bias.
This is the same treatment that Reddit gave to those who disagreed with their policy changes regarding APIs, they simply didn't budge and told them to deal with it, as they know that there is no replacement for Reddit and their user base was going to be using Mastodon and the fediverse for exactly one week before they all came back grumbling at their feet again, seeking their fix.
X merely stamps it - the old Twitter is dead, all hail the new Twitter.
There's a reason why Facebook can piss $25 Billion into a failed project like Metaverse and completely survive no sweat. They print so much money its insane. Even dozens-of-billions of dollars of mistake is no problem to them.
Facebook literally loses more money in shitty projects that will never work (ie: Metaverse) than Twitter can make in revenue. The difference between the two platforms is unfathomably wide.
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By revenue, Facebook/Meta is on the scale of 2300% the size of Twitter, and that was 2021-era Twitter with $5 Billion/year revenue.
What do you think Twitter's revenue this year, 2023 will be? They'll be lucky to get $2.5 Billion. Ad revenue has collapsed and everyone knows it.
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EDIT: Look, I don't like Facebook/Meta either, but... the comparison between the two companies is insane. The fairy tale character Thumbelina was IIRC ~3-inches tall, and compared against someone 23x her size it'd be a typical 6-foot person. That's the kind of comparison you're making.
This whole problem is because of how Elon Musk decided to borrow $13 Billion to buy Twitter in the first place. Even if he makes Twitter "somewhat profitable", there's the question of making it profitable enough to make back the $44 Billion he borrowed+spent on it. A feat that I don't think will happen.
Elon Musk didn't have to structure this deal as a $13 Billion loan + Equity. This whole situation is a result of his own financial engineering. If an Arsonist manages to put out his own fire that's definitely a feat, but not one we should celebrate.
I have accounts on both services, but I must admit I use and like Twitter way, way more. Then again, it's like, fun, y'know. I can spend hours scrolling through the large variety of posts ranging from technology to my favorite art, and with just a healthy dose of naughty things thrown in the middle :D
They can't even change the sign right.
Maybe Elon should just rebrand it to "er" and call it a day.
about.twitter.com/en/who-we-are/brand-toolkit
Twitter still hasn't updated its branding page. I'm F5ing to see how long it takes for Elon Musk to recognize this contradiction.
The PDF is 10MB long. But here's a particular page I'm sure we will all find funny. Remember, I grabbed this today, July 25th, days after the X-"rebanding" started.
On the other hand, it is likely that the renamed platform will be sued.
www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/
There's also the issue that X is super generic and hundreds of companies hold different trademarks on it
www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/
I mean, I'm over here happily sitting in Lemmy land with somewhere between 100k and 1MM users. Its a good enough community in practice. We will see if Lemmy works out, but the numbers here are pretty large, all else considered.
I personally don't think that Twitter will go to zero users. My main argument is that Twitter is now losing nearly $3 Billion/year (estimated, see my previous posts). Facebook/Meta is making $20+ Billions/year in contrast, so I don't see any reason why they'd give up this year, or next. With such a deficit in $$$money, Twitter's ability as a company to continue existing is... well... at crisis levels. Even if Elon Musk is a $hundred-billionaire, its still embarassing for him to hold onto a company losing $3ish Billion/year, and there's been no move this year to suggest that Elon Musk has the mental capacity to fix this problem.