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X.com (bank)

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X.com
Company typePrivate
FoundedMarch 1999; 25 years ago (1999-03)
Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Founders
  • Elon Musk
  • Harris Fricker
  • Christopher Payne
  • Ed Ho
Defunct2000; 24 years ago (2000)
FateMerged March 2000 with Confinity to form PayPal
Elon Musk reacquired the domain 2017
Websitex.com (Redirects to Twitter.com, which is currently rebranding to X)
Archived July 7, 2000, at the Wayback Machine
Not to be confused with X.
This article is part of
a series about
Elon Musk
Personal
Companies
Politics
In popular culture
Related
Elon Musk's signature

X.com was an online bank co-founded by Elon Musk, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho in 1999 in Palo Alto, California. In 2000, Musk was interested in merging with competitor Confinity Inc., a software company also based in Palo Alto, because it had developed an easy payment system. The merged company changed its name to PayPal and the X.com website redirected to PayPal.

In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for US$1.5 billion. In 2015, PayPal was spun off and became an independent company. As of July 23, 2023, the X.com website redirects to Twitter after Musk decided to rebrand the social networking service as X following his acquisition.

Business model

X.com was an early online bank, and deposits were insured by the FDIC. The company was initially funded by Elon Musk and Greg Kouri, who went on to fund Musk's later ventures: Tesla and SpaceX.[1]

Customers were not assessed fees or overdraft penalties. New member referrals were rewarded with a $20 cash card and a $10 card for each new sign-up. These features were unique for their time. For instance, customers could send money to another person by entering their email address into X.com.[2] Additionally, customers could open an account strictly with online registration with no need to mail a check.[3]

History

Throughout the 1990s, Elon Musk envisioned creating a full-service online bank that provided checking and savings accounts, brokerages, and insurance.[4] Musk commented in a 1999 interview with CBS MarketWatch: "I think we're at the third stage now where people are ready to use the Internet as their main financial repository."[3]

In January 1999, Musk formally began planning an online bank while in the process of selling his company Zip2. A month after Zip2 was purchased by Compaq, Musk invested about $12 million into co-founding X.com in March 1999 with Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho.[5][6] Fricker worked with Musk when Musk was an intern at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Payne was a friend of Fricker, and Ho was an engineer at Silicon Graphics and executive at Zip2.[7] The company was initially run from a house before moving to an office in Palo Alto, California.[8] Due to conflict on how to run the company, Musk fired Fricker five months after x.com had started, and the other two co-founders, Payne and Ho left consequently. [9][10]

X.com officially launched on December 7, 1999, with former Intuit CEO Bill Harris serving as the inaugural CEO.[11][3] Within two months, X.com attracted over 200,000 signups.[12]

In March 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, its fiercest competitor, the new company being called X.com.[13] Musk was its biggest shareholder and was appointed as its CEO. Started in 1998, Confinity's product PayPal enabled users with PalmPilots to send money to each other through its infrared ports.[14][15] Subsequently, PayPal developed to allow users to send money using email and the web.[15]

In September 2000, when Musk was in Australia for a honeymoon trip, the X.com board voted for a change of CEO from Musk to Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Confinity. In June 2001, X.com was renamed PayPal.[16]

On October 3, 2002, eBay purchased PayPal for US$1.5 billion.[17][18]

In July 2015, PayPal was spun off to become an independent, publicly traded company.[19]

Reuse of domain name

On July 5, 2017, Musk repurchased the domain name X.com from PayPal.[20][21] He explained later that he bought it because "it has great sentimental value".[22]

On July 14, 2017, X.com was launched again, consisting of a blank white page with one "x" in the top left corner,[23] and a custom error page displaying a "y".[24][25] The site displayed this way due to having nothing in its source code except the single letter "x". In December 2017, X.com redirected visitors to The Boring Company's website, which Musk also owns. This was done in order to advertise a hat sale.[25]

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
 Twitter logo, a stylized blue bird

Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app

Oct 4, 2022[26]

On October 4, 2022, Elon Musk described his acquisition of Twitter as "an accelerant to creating X, the everything app", linked to X.com.[27][28] In conversation with Ron Baron a month later, Musk said that he would execute the X product plan "with some improvements" which would make Twitter "the most valuable financial institution in the world."[29]

On July 22, 2023, Musk announced the rebranding of the well-known social networking service, Twitter, to "X" and unveiled a new social media platform, X.com. However, navigating to X.com automatically redirects users to Twitter.com. The iconic blue bird has been superseded site-wide with a black "𝕏" logo, a double-struck capital X. Both Elon Musk's profile and the official Twitter profile, along with other Twitter-owned accounts, have not only adopted this new "𝕏" logo, but also replaced "Twitter" in their usernames with "X". For instance, "@TwitterBlue" is now "@XBlue" (later "@premium").[30] Specific details about this rebranding are yet to be disclosed.[31][32]

On July 28, 2023, the 'Twitter' app linked to X.com changed its name to 'X' and updated its app logo to an '𝕏'. This rebranding is now reflected on both the App Store and Google Play, where the new tagline, "Blaze your glory!" is also displayed.

See also

References

  1. ^ Hull, Dana (August 13, 2012). "Grieg Kouri, early investor in PayPal, dies in New York". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  2. ^ Vance 2017, p. 84.
  3. ^ a b c Tolliver, Craig (December 10, 1999). "X.com opens its virtual doors". CBS MarketWatch. Archived from the original on March 2, 2000. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  4. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 77–78.
  5. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 78–81.
  6. ^ Soni 2022, p. 52.
  7. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 80–82.
  8. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 81–82.
  9. ^ Vance 2017.
  10. ^ Soni 2022.
  11. ^ "X.com Names Names Bill Harris President and CEO". X.com. December 7, 1999. Archived from the original on March 3, 2000. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  12. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 84–85.
  13. ^ Vance 2017, p. 86.
  14. ^ Chafkin 2021, pp. 51–52.
  15. ^ a b Vance 2017, p. 85.
  16. ^ Vance 2017, pp. 88–89.
  17. ^ "eBay Completes PayPal Acquisition". eBay. October 3, 2002. Archived from the original on January 21, 2005. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  18. ^ Ostrom, Mary Anne (July 9, 2002). "EBay to buy PayPal for $1.5 billion". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on January 8, 2003. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
  19. ^ de la Merced, Michael J.; Sorkin, Andrew Ross (September 30, 2014). "EBay Does About-Face in Spinoff of PayPal Backed by Icahn". New York Times. Archived from the original on September 30, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  20. ^ Strange, Adario. "What mysterious plan does Elon Musk have for X.com?". Mashable. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  21. ^ Huang, Echo (July 11, 2017). "Elon Musk just bought x.com, but it probably didn't come cheap". Quartz. Archived from the original on June 25, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  22. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (July 11, 2017). "Thanks PayPal for allowing me to buy back https://t.co/bOUOejO16Y! No plans right now, but it has great sentimental value to me" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ Maggio, Edoardo. "Elon Musk has launched the 'X.com' website he bought back from PayPal recently". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  24. ^ Elon Musk [@elonmusk] (July 15, 2017). "y" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ a b Iles, James (December 11, 2017). "Elon Musk Finally Puts X.com to Some Use". NamePros. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  26. ^ Elon Musk [@elonmusk] (October 4, 2022). "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 4, 2022 – via Twitter.
  27. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (October 4, 2022). "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022 – via Twitter.
  28. ^ "Explained: Why 'X', the everything app is so close to Elon Musk's heart?". mint. October 7, 2022. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  29. ^ Full New Elon Musk Interview. Ron Baron Conference Nov 2022. With Timestamps. Tesla Intelligence UK. November 4, 2022. Archived from the original on December 1, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via YouTube.
  30. ^ "Musk Declares Fan-Submitted 'X' New Twitter Logo in Abrupt Shift". Bloomberg.com. July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  31. ^ D'Innocenzio, Anne (July 23, 2023). "Musk says Twitter to change logo to "X" from the bird. Changes could come as early as Monday". ABC News. Retrieved July 23, 2023 – via The Associated Press.
  32. ^ Spangler, Todd (July 23, 2023). "Elon Musk Claims Twitter Will Soon Be Renamed 'X'". Variety. Retrieved July 23, 2023.

Further reading

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