Compared with Facebook and Instagram’s multibillion-person combined user base, Twitter was a modest platform with 238 million daily users – but it was influential and well-known.Īccording to X’s new chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, speaking at a conference last month, the social network now has between 200 million and 250 million users, although she indicated later during her appearance that the number is 225 million – which would indicate a decline. Nonetheless, the sudden dumping of the Twitter brand in July this year took the tech world by surprise. Shortly before he completed the $44bn (£36bn) takeover, Musk signalled what was coming when he described the deal as an “accelerant to creating X, the everything app”.
The biggest single change in a tumultuous 12 months was rebranding Twitter as X, a long-mooted move for an entrepreneur who has harboured ambitions to create an “everything app” that handles messaging, social networking, audio, video, payments and online shopping. Musk acquired Twitter on 27 October 2022.
From dumping a world-renowned brand to attempting to overhaul the company’s business model, Musk has changed Twitter more in the past year than any other executive in the 16 years prior.
