It’s the end of an era as the Twitter.com URL has officially been retired by Elon Musk’s social media platform X, following its rebrand last July.
Typing in the original address now redirects to X.com, so you can still access the site using the old URL for the time being.
In a nod to the change, Musk tweeted: “All core systems are now on X.com.” The post included a logo similar to that of his erstwhile online banking firm, which itself was rebranded from X.com to PayPal following Musk’s ouster in 2000.
The Tesla CEO would eventually buy back the company’s domain in 2017 for an unknown sum, which some suggest may have been as high as $6.8 million (£5.4mn).
Musk originally bid farewell to the Twitter brand last July in a flurry of tweets. Shortly after, the company’s iconic bird symbol, named after pro basketball player Larry Bird, was replaced with a new X logo on its website and headquarters.
The company’s top brass has claimed the rebrand is part of the platform’s ambitious transition to a “super app” that offers and connects to a multitude of services, from banking to entertainment to food delivery. In reality, we’ve yet to see that transformation play out.
All core systems are now on https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy pic.twitter.com/cwWu3h2vzr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2024
That’s not to say the platform hasn’t changed. Under Musk’s purview, the company has doubled down on subscriptions, started charging new users a sign-up fee overseas, introduced an AI chatbot, and pushed users toward recommended content.
The updates haven’t exactly been welcomed by the site’s vocal members. Globally, the platform’s daily active app users dropped by 15 percent to 174 million as of February, according to Sensor Tower data. X itself has disputed these figures, claiming user numbers are still growing.
Meanwhile, major advertisers like Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola, and others have paused or significantly reduced their ad spending on X due to concerns over content moderation following Musk’s takeover in October 2022. The exodus prompted fears that the company could go bust.
Addressing the issue in December 2022, Musk said: “If the company fails… it will fail because of an advertiser boycott. And that will be what bankrupts the company."
