Twitter has lost its identity. Or that’s what the experts and users who continue to use X in their daily lives tell us. Elon Musk’s social network has made too many sharp turns in a year, and the app’s purpose has become diluted after so many changes.
Last week, to celebrate the first anniversary of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter (or X, as it is now called), a highly unusual and significant meeting was held.
As shown by a complete transcript of the meeting shared by The Verge, Musk, who spoke for most of the 45-minute gathering, used the majority of the assembly to discuss his grand vision for X as a future “all-encompassing application.”
That vision, he told the staff, includes gaining control over the users’ “financial life” through an extensive banking network within the X app, replacing platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn, and introducing a video calling feature akin to Apple’s FaceTime.
He wants to be YouTube, LinkedIn… and Tinder
And apparently, he also wants to turn X into a dating app, you know, because we all want to entrust our romantic lives to a billionaire who has been divorced three times and is obsessed with having dozens of babies.
“Obviously, I’ve met someone, and my friends have met people on the platform,” Musk told X employees, according to the transcript, adding that “you can tell if someone is a good match based on what they write.”
“So, is X Dating just around the corner?” X CEO Linda Yaccarino interjected, speaking very little during the meeting.
“Yes,” Musk responded, according to the transcript. “There are already some things happening to some extent. But I think we could improve the dating situation.”
Elon Musk’s push into the dating feature was largely based on the concept of “discovery.” Essentially, he says, it’s hard to find like-minded people, and for him, a user’s Twitter history could solve that problem.
The “Discovery” feature is your new Tinder
On one hand, it’s true that couples meet on social media all the time; before the advent of apps like Twitter and Instagram, the concept of “sliding into DMs” didn’t exist.
What is unclear, however, is how X could undertake the monumental task of distilling a user’s Twitter history into an effective algorithm for finding a partner that people would actually use. It’s not easy, and Twitter has many challenges right now.
Elon Musk isn’t the first billionaire to set his sights on monetizing broad access to everyday human life. But Silicon Valley has long been chasing the white whale of “all-encompassing apps.”
But the reality is that this is impossible. For example, at Meta, the world’s largest conglomerate in terms of apps and social networks, they have been launching separate applications, each specialized in a specific task. We have WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and so on.
At no point have they wanted to create an all-encompassing app where everything is bundled together. Users don’t like that approach. And especially if you intend to create a social network that doubles as your dating app and, at the same time, your banking application. It genuinely seems like something only possible in Elon Musk’s mind.
Meanwhile, the app is losing hundreds of millions of users and constantly devaluing. Right now, the company is worth $20 billion less than when he bought it… just a year ago.
