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After Purchasing one of the most famous social media sites, Elon Musk is now focused on making X, an A to Z utility application.
In 2022, Elon Musk, with the largest amount of wealth globally, expressed interest in obtaining one of the most widely used social media platforms and then later changed his mind. However, on October 28th of the same year, he completed the purchase of Twitter at his initial offer price of $54.20 per share, amounting to an approximate expenditure of $44 Billion. In July 2023, Musk rebranded Twitter as ‘X’ after acquiring it. He dismissed high-ranking executives, cut the workforce by half, established a content moderation council, and revised the subscription service.
X’s Working on the Back of the Envelope
Probably the simplest description of X: It is a platform for micro-blogging. Blogging is a well-established practice where people create basic websites and write about their interests such as politics, sports, cooking, fashion, and more. A tweet is a post on Twitter where the users connect by following each other’s X feeds. When you follow someone, their posts will appear on your timeline. To tweet someone, use the @ symbol followed by their username.
Retweeting in X
Retweeting is a significant part of X. It’s when people repeat other users’ tweets to their followers. Hashtags are frequently used on X. They are used to group tweets about a particular topic. For instance, if many people are attending a conference and want to share what the speakers are saying, they can use an agreed-upon hashtag by using the # symbol followed by the name.
Elon Musk’s Vision of X as an Everything app
Elon Musk purchased X with the vision of transforming it into an “everything app” like WeChat. It is a popular Chinese app that people use for various daily tasks like messaging, banking, and shopping. Moreover, Musk hoped that by turning X into an everything app, he could not only make it more profitable, but also make it the only app that users need for their daily lives.
However, more than a year later, X still seems far from following in WeChat’s footsteps. Musk’s plan to morph X into a super app may seem like an impossible dream, but some experts believe X could be well-positioned to become one.
If X can avoid the missteps that led other wannabe super apps to fail, it could potentially become an everything app that users can use for various tasks such as messaging, shopping, and banking. X already has some features like Spaces and Communities, and it could add more payment features to expand its creator economy.
It’s important for X to be strategic at every step if it wants to be a super app. Simply adding a Buy button or attempting to become the next PayPal embedded in a social network would likely fail. However, if X focuses on supporting creators, it could potentially succeed as a super app by adding features that directly support creators and then widely catching on with other users.
The Additions In X For the Road to ‘Everything App’
XAI’s advanced chatbot, Grok, will now be available to all premium subscribers, not just the highest tier. This decision by XAI to open-source Grok’s underlying code coincides with the wider availability of the chatbot.
However, for X, this move enhances its premium subscription offering. Additionally, it also increases Grok’s ability to provide humourous interactions could encourage free users to upgrade their subscriptions. This aligns with Musk’s efforts to diversify X’s revenue streams and reduce its reliance on advertising.
The most intriguing aspect of this news is the open sourcing of Grok. By making the code publicly available, xAI is encouraging collaboration and experimentation within the developer community, which has the potential to accelerate innovation in the field of AI chatbots.
Furthermore, this could lead to the emergence of new applications for Grok beyond the X platform. Although X has yet to confirm details, users may be able to search for job openings on the platform using filters such as location, keywords, companies, desired roles, and experience levels.
Smart TVs App by X
On March 9, X announced that it will be releasing a new app designed for smart TVs, which will be a direct competitor to YouTube. The app is expected to launch on Amazon and Samsung platforms as early as next week. This move reflects Elon Musk’s ambition to expand X’s functionalities and challenge YouTube’s dominance in online video.
New Ad Targeting Options By X
To lure content creators away from YouTube, social network X introduced ad targeting options in February this year. Advertisers can place ads before videos of specific creators in the main timeline and on individual profiles. Creators will be offered a revenue split, providing them with another way to monetize their work.
During an internal X meeting on October 26th, Musk spoke about the transformation of the company from Twitter 1.0 to the Everything app, according to a full transcript published by The Verge. The meeting marked the anniversary of Musk buying X for $44 Billion and was the first joint all-hands with Linda Yaccarino, who became the CEO in May.
Musk, who still oversees X’s product and engineering teams, was the primary speaker during the 45-minute call. While the purpose of the all-hands was to answer employees’ pre-submitted questions, he instead used the opportunity to discuss topics such as sharing negative news in meetings and the state of journalism.
The process of turning Twitter into X has been challenging. Musk’s actions caused the company’s primary advertisers to leave over the previous year, his X Premium subscription has not received much attention, the business is still not profitable, and its value is decreasing. Despite all this, Musk remained hopeful during the call, stating that “this is possibly the quickest rate of innovation ever seen by an internet company.”
Summary
Elon Musk purchased a popular social media platform in 2022 with the vision of transforming it into an “everything app” like WeChat. The platform is known for retweeting and hashtags. It has the potential to become a super app if it avoids missteps. To lure content creators from YouTube, the platform introduced a new ad targeting options, starting a revenue split; the new service started in February 2024.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions stated by the author or any people named in this article are for informational purposes only. They do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading in stocks, cryptos, or other related indexes comes with a risk of financial loss.
Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.
