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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Twitter’s 2023 rebrand to X brought Elon Musk back to the name of his first major internet-finance venture—but not to the same company. The original X.com merged with Confinity and became PayPal; today’s X is a social platform using Musk’s old name and domain as the banner for a much broader ambition.
The first X.com was a financial-services company
Musk co-founded X.com in 1999, after selling his first company, Zip2. It set out to bring banking and payments onto the internet, with ambitions broader than a single way to send money. The name was spare and expansive, an early sign of Musk’s preference for a platform that could encompass multiple services. The Washington Post’s account of X.com and the rebrand traces that early venture.
It is misleading, though, to call X.com simply the first version of PayPal. The eventual PayPal business emerged from a merger, not an unchanged X.com product.
How X.com became PayPal
In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, whose products included PayPal. The combined company initially kept X.com as its corporate name, while PayPal grew into the stronger product identity. The merger also brought together distinct teams and strategies; disagreements over leadership, direction and branding were part of the company’s early history.
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The company adopted the PayPal name in 2001. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for about $1.5 billion in stock. Musk was a major founder and early leader at X.com, but the story of PayPal also rests on Confinity founders and other executives, including Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. TechCrunch’s timeline covers the transition from X.com through PayPal and into the later Twitter chapter.
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The X.com domain returned to Musk
PayPal retained the X.com domain after the company changed its name. Musk reacquired it from PayPal in 2017. Contemporary reporting said he valued the domain for its “great sentimental value.” The purchase made clear that X.com remained meaningful to him, though there was no fully developed public product attached to the domain at the time. The Washington Post reported on the reacquisition and its significance.
That return of the domain is an important link in the story, but it is not evidence that Musk had already mapped out Twitter’s eventual rebrand. It connects an old name and ambition to a later opportunity.
Twitter was a different kind of platform
Twitter grew out of the Odeo and Obvious Corporation orbit as a short-message social service. Its identity formed around the blue bird, “tweets,” and public conversation unfolding in real time. Over more than a decade, the name became a cultural reference as well as a product label. Unlike the original X.com, Twitter was not built as a bank or financial-services company.
That difference makes the 2023 change more than a logo refresh. It replaced a highly recognizable identity and user vocabulary with a deliberately broad, abstract name. In discussing the period, it helps to distinguish Twitter, the service’s historical identity, from X, its current public identity, and x.com, the domain associated with Musk’s earlier venture and later used to reach the platform. An academic discussion of the naming transition examines why those terms can carry different meanings: the paper on referring to Twitter/X.
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Musk’s 2022 acquisition brought the two histories together
Musk disclosed a major stake in Twitter in April 2022 and agreed to buy the company for about $44 billion. The transaction closed in October, making Twitter privately held under his ownership. After the acquisition, X Corp. became the successor corporate structure associated with the platform. The acquisition figure describes the announced transaction, not a settled measure of the company’s later value. TechCrunch’s acquisition and transformation timeline recounts the sequence.
Twitter offered something the original X.com did not have: an established audience and a live public-conversation network. For an owner seeking to combine communication with other services, that existing platform could serve as a starting point. That is a strategic rationale, not proof that the combination would work.
The move from Twitter to X unfolded over several days
The rebrand was announced and implemented in stages, rather than occurring as a single clean switch:
- July 23, 2023: Musk announced that the Twitter brand would be replaced by X.
- July 24: The blue bird logo was replaced by an X mark. TechCrunch reported on the logo change.
- July 25 and after: Official account handles and related branding began changing, with the service increasingly presented as X. TechCrunch covered the official handle change.
The shorthand “Twitter became X on July 23” captures the announcement, but the visible and operational transition extended across July 23–25. X’s own company announcement framed the change as a transformation of the service, not just a new symbol.
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What the “everything app” ambition means
X has described a future that reaches beyond public posts. Its company materials have pointed to audio and video calls, long-form publishing, hiring, creator subscriptions and revenue sharing, business services, advertising products and Grok-related capabilities. Payments and financial services belong to the broader ambition, too. These are company-stated directions and product offerings; they do not establish that all the pieces are fully integrated, widely available or central to how users behave.
The historical continuity is in the scale of the idea, not in identical products. The original X.com aimed to bring multiple financial services together online. The later X uses a social network as a foundation for a platform that could bring communication, commerce and other services together. In January 2024, X described this direction as an “everything app” in its company overview.
What X offers today—and what its prices say
As of August 18, 2026, X’s official materials identify the company as X Corp. and list consumer Premium tiers, business and organization products, creator programs, advertising and paid API access. These offerings indicate an attempt to diversify beyond advertising, but their existence alone does not show whether they can offset advertising volatility or form one coherent service.
X’s U.S. web pricing page lists the following consumer plans. Prices can vary by location, taxes, platform and payment method, and X says features may change. Check X’s current Premium page before subscribing.
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| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $3 | $32 |
| Premium | $8 | $84 |
| Premium+ | $40 | $395 |
For organizations, X lists Premium Business Basic at $200 per month or $2,000 per year and Full Access at $1,000 per month or $10,000 per year in the United States; additional affiliate-seat charges may apply. These prices were checked August 18, 2026, and are subject to change. X Premium Business details and current terms explain the plans.
Premium bundles features such as editing posts, longer posts and videos, and access to creator or AI features according to tier. A blue checkmark is not necessarily an independent identity endorsement: X ties blue checks to eligible paid Premium or Premium+ subscriptions, subject to review and other requirements. X’s Premium help page describes eligibility and features. For developers and researchers, X presents API access through a paid usage or credit model; consult its API pricing page for current terms, which can change.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The brand gamble: reach versus recognition
Replacing “Twitter” meant giving up more than a familiar name. The bird, the verb “tweet,” and the platform’s association with real-time public conversation had accumulated recognition and everyday use. “X” is shorter and can serve as an umbrella for services beyond social media, but it is less specific, harder to distinguish in ordinary search and less emotionally anchored to the community Twitter had built.
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Whether the shift makes strategic sense depends on results, not just intention. The useful tests are whether new services add practical value rather than simply relabel existing features; whether communication, payments and commerce become integrated; and whether subscription and business products strengthen the model without undermining trust. Execution matters too: users and businesses must be able to understand policies, APIs, moderation and paid identity products well enough to rely on them.
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The naming choice also has a founder-centered dimension. Musk’s attachment to X makes the move legible as part of his personal history. For users who valued Twitter as an independent cultural identity, that history may feel remote—or the rebrand may feel like an unnecessary loss. Both reactions can be true at once.
Full circle symbolically, not corporately
The arc is real but qualified. Musk reused the name of his first major internet-finance venture, recovered its domain in 2017, and applied the X identity to a platform he says can grow into a broad digital service. That makes “full circle” a useful description of his recurring ambition to connect communication, finance and other online activity.
It is not a continuous corporate story. The original X.com merged with Confinity; the combined business became PayPal and was sold to eBay. Twitter’s community, product and brand developed separately. Today’s X inherited a mature social network rather than rebuilding an online bank, and reusing a name does not demonstrate that the old payments vision—or the new everything-app strategy—has been achieved. X’s company site and its current product materials establish the present identity; the extent of the strategic transformation is a separate question.
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