Elon Musk, owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter and now X, has set out to compete directly with traditional telecommunications and telephone operators through the Internet. The move is simple: it offers video and audio calls, as do ‘over the top’ companies, such as Whatsapp, Skype, Google or Apple.
Once smartphones have cameras and a permanent data connection, X’s task has been reduced to enriching its service with calls over VoIP (voice over the Internet). In this way, the company will reinforce user loyalty, although with little differential value. As Musk announced from his X account, the tool will work on iOS and Android operating systems, as well as on conventional computers and Macs. As with other competing systems, X does not require a phone number and will use the phone book hosted in the cloud. As Musk emphasizes, this is a “unique set of factors”, a statement that could be questioned when taking a look at the rest of the market, with years of experience in that field of activity.
This movement by Musk responds to the tycoon’s strategy of turning the old Twitter into one of the main super apps on the market. Almost a year ago, and in exchange for 44,000 million dollars, Musk turned the reference communication platform almost into his toy with the effort to make it profitable at a rapid pace. With the example of China’s WeChat at the forefront of his office, Musk will add new features to the platform such as payment methods, e-commerce storefronts, messaging services, and telecommunications tools. X will also serve to search for and offer employment -in direct rivalry with Microsoft’s LinkedIN, once it will expose job offers to interested registered users in exchange for access to their academic history and professional career. With all of the above, the also owner of Tesla and SpaceX would have access to especially valuable data for advertising purposes of millions of users, including biometric information.
In this sense, the Bloomberg agency reported yesterday that X has modified its privacy policy to open the door to the reception of data used for facial or digital recognition, always for purposes related to security and identification.
