Twitter is no more as Elon Musk completes X rebranding, shifts URL to X.com

Billionaire Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has changed its website URL from Twitter.com to X.com. 

The development comes nearly 10 months after Musk renamed the platform to X.He acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal in October 2022. 

"All core systems are now on http://X.com," Musk wrote on X.

All core systems are now on https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy pic.twitter.com/cwWu3h2vzr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2024

"We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same. For more details, see our Privacy Policy: https://x.com/en/privacy," the company said in a popup notice on its website.

Musk began the rebranding process by replacing Twitter's iconic bird logo, called Larry Bird, with a fan-made logo, a stylized version of the letter X.

Explaining the reason behind this change, Musk said that the platform would add "comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world" in the coming months. "The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird," he said.

Replacing the iconic logo wasn't the only change Musk made during the rebranding process. He also introduced paid verification, prohibited third-party apps, introduced new API tiers for developers, paywalled many features that were previously free, and shut down several others.

In January, X announced plans to use AI to enhance the user experience and advertisements on their platform. The social media platform also plans to introduce peer-to-peer payments to create new opportunities for commerce.

Recently, X launched Grok, an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT from Musk's AI startup xAI, for subscribers of its Premium and Premium+ tiers in over 50 countries, including India. Last month, X revealed plans to launch a TV app to expand into video content and compete with platforms like Google-owned YouTube.

The recent developments on X (formerly Twitter) highlight how much the platform has changed since its acquisition.

It's worth mentioning that the letter 'X' has been closely associated with Musk since 1999.

He co-founded x.com with Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho as one of the world's first online banks. This entity later merged with rival Confinity, and the combined company rebranded as the online payments giant PayPal in 2001. 

Musk reacquired the X.com domain name from PayPal in July 2017 for an undisclosed sum.