Elon Musk's X Finally Has a Domain That Matches Its Name Musk bought the X.com domain from PayPal years before buying then-Twitter.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- "Twitter.com" is no more.
- The social media platform's URL is X.com as of Friday.
- The change marks the gradual evolution of Twitter into X.
X, formerly Twitter, is officially dropping "Twitter" from its URL.
Less than a year after revealing a new logo, and nearly seven years after buying the X.com domain from PayPal, Musk has moved the social media platform's core systems to X.com.
As of Friday, twitter.com will automatically redirect to x.com.
All core systems are now on https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy pic.twitter.com/cwWu3h2vzr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2024
Logging on to X should yield a pop-up "Welcome to x.com!" message at the bottom of the screen.
"We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same," the message further reads.
Related: Elon Musk Wants X to Be a Financial Hub and Dating App
On Friday, Musk also reposted an update from an X engineer who said the For You page was getting improvements too.
Major improvements on For you today! Let us know your feedback over the next couple of days, is it getting better or worse?
— Haofei (@wanghaofei) May 17, 2024
For those interested: we are eliminating several major heuristics as we move toward realtime end-to-end neural network based recommendations.
The changes mark the gradual evolution of Twitter into X.
Related: Elon Musk Sued By Ex-Twitter CEO, CFO For $128 Million
Musk bought back the x.com domain from PayPal in 2017. He said at the time that he had "no plans" to use it but that the domain held " great sentimental value" for him.
Musk purchased what was then Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, and the app underwent a rebrand. The terminology and look of the app changed: tweets became posts and the old Twitter logo disappeared into the new X design in July 2023.
X also introduced subscription plans that were, at first, optional.
Related: Elon Musk Says New X Users Will Soon Have to Pay to Post on the Platform
Last month, Musk said that all new users would now have to pay "a small fee" to use the platform. By the platform's own estimates, 250 million people use X every day.
X owner Elon Musk in June 2023. Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images
Musk has become the most-followed person on X since buying it, amassing 183.9 million followers at the time of writing.
As of last month, X had the biggest audience in the U.S., with 106.23 million users.
Related: Judge Orders Elon Musk to Testify in SEC Probe Over Twitter Acquisition