Aakanksha Jetley, Pune
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X (formerly Twitter), said she has the “autonomy” to run the company under Elon Musk. She added that their roles are clear, and advertisers should feel comfortable returning to the social media platform. “Elon is working on accelerating the rebrand and the future. I’m responsible for the rest, from partnerships to legal to finance,” she told CNBC.
In a recent interview, Yaccarino discussed X’s plans to become an all-in-one app that offers payment processing and video calls without requiring a phone number. She also provided a timeline of the platform’s evolution under Mr Musk’s leadership, citing examples of long-form videos, articles, subscriptions, and creator earnings.
Additionally, she spoke about the decision to drop Twitter branding from the platform altogether. “Elon has been talking about X, the everything app, for a very long time,” she said. “Even when we announced that I was joining the company, I was joining the company to partner with Elon to transform Twitter into X, the everything app.”
According to the CEO, the rebranding to X represents a “liberation” from the previous name and a chance to move beyond old ways of thinking. She explained that the new platform will significantly impact how people gather, enjoy entertainment, and make transactions all in one place.
“If you stay at Twitter, or whatever your previous brand is, change tends to be only incremental. And you get graded on a legacy report card. And at X, we think about what’s possible. Not the incremental change of what can’t be done,” Yaccarino emphasised the freeing and forward-thinking nature of their rebranding to X.
Formerly an NBCUniversal executive, she became the CEO of X in June. She expressed excitement to help transform the social media platform, inspired by owner Elon Musk’s vision for a brighter future.