Tech
All in one: Twitter is now X, as Musk looks to build a "super-app"

All in one: Twitter is now X, as Musk looks to build a "super-app"

David Crowther
7/25/23 7:00PM

NeXt chapter

Twitter is dead, and an X marks the spot where its iconic blue bird once perched. While Elon Musk’s latest change may have taken some by surprise, with “X” users rushing to “X” their views about the “X” redesign, his preoccupation with (and plans around) the 24th letter actually go way back.

In 1999, Musk founded X.com, an online bank that merged with Confinity to become PayPal just a year later. Now, his biographer Walter Isaacson says, the Tesla CEO is ready to complete his original vision from nearly 25 years ago — turning X into a one-stop everything platform.

Everything, everywhere, all in one app

Everything apps, or “super-apps”, are platforms where the user can fulfill a variety of tasks from one centralized hub. That means playing minigames in the same place you message your loved ones, or reading the latest news on the app that you transfer a friend the $10 you owe them. Super-apps are huge in Asia and Musk’s goal will be to try and replicate the biggest of them all — WeChat.

Indeed, in a town hall event for Twitter employees back in June 2022, Musk explained that people in China “basically live on WeChat because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life”. The app’s 1.32 billion monthly active users — who can hail taxis, order food, pay their bills, read books, message people, post pictures, and much more — would likely agree with Musk on that point too.

Apparently, the mogul wants X to be even bigger, though. Axios observed that Musk’s tellings herald the app as “Twitter + Substack + YouTube + PayPal + Amazon + TikTok + WeChat + Baidu” rolled into one. The everything app for everything apps, then.

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Tesla faces door handle probe after Bloomberg report

A week after Bloomberg published a report called “Tesla’s Dangerous Doors” that detailed instances where people were hurt or injured after accidents reportedly left the flush electronic door handles inoperable, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a probe into the matter.

“NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which there is no manual way to open the door,” the NHTSA wrote. It cited reports of parents being forced to break the windows of their Teslas to extract their children locked inside.

The probe adds to a list of headwinds Tesla is facing, including declining sales, the end of the federal EV tax credit, and increased competition. However, Tesla, riding high on news yesterday that CEO Elon Musk purchased $1 billion in shares, doesn’t seem to be dampened by the news. It’s up 1.5% premarket.

Tesla Faces Probe by US Auto Safety Agency Over Door Handles

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“NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which there is no manual way to open the door,” the NHTSA wrote. It cited reports of parents being forced to break the windows of their Teslas to extract their children locked inside.

The probe adds to a list of headwinds Tesla is facing, including declining sales, the end of the federal EV tax credit, and increased competition. However, Tesla, riding high on news yesterday that CEO Elon Musk purchased $1 billion in shares, doesn’t seem to be dampened by the news. It’s up 1.5% premarket.

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Oracle jumps on report it’s involved in TikTok deal

Oracle is up nearly 5% this morning on a CBS report that it’s one of “multiple companies” involved in a deal to operate TikTok in the US. Oracle has long been considered a likely contender.

Whichever US entity ultimately takes over TikTok’s American operations will continue to use parent company ByteDance’s Chinese algorithm, the Financial Times reported earlier today. Concerns that Beijing could use the prized algorithm to manipulate US users and push propaganda was a key reason the government moved to ban the app in the first place, though much of the evidence remains classified.

US social media competitors Meta and Snap initially dropped yesterday on news of an impending deal but have since recovered and don’t seem to be affected premarket today.

Oracle could play key role in TikTok deal between Trump administration and China, sources say

Oracle could play key role in TikTok deal between Trump administration and China, sources say

US social media competitors Meta and Snap initially dropped yesterday on news of an impending deal but have since recovered and don’t seem to be affected premarket today.

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Google faces its first big lawsuit for AI summaries, from one of many media companies it’s eclipsing

With most of America’s major news sites seeing large drops in readership, even the tech giant itself admits the web is in “rapid decline.”

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Google joins Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia with a $3 trillion-plus valuation

Today, Google became the fourth company to surpass a $3 trillion market cap, joining the likes of Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. Google’s shares were up 4% in early trading, pushing the company over the $3 trillion milestone. The stock has been on a tear following a federal court ruling earlier this month that avoided some of the worst-case antitrust scenarios regarding its search monopoly, including breaking up the company. And earlier today Citigroup raised its Google price target to $280 from $225, citing “an accelerated product development cycle that is beginning to emerge with greater Gemini adoption across both its Ads and Cloud businesses.”

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