• by Colin Kirkland , August 10, 2023

In an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Thursday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino explained why Elon Musk rebranded the platform, formerly known as Twitter, and how the company is embracing the “everything app” concept moving forward through new video-chat capabilities, updated brand-safety tools and more.

The X rebrand, according to Yaccarino, has been a goal of Musk’s since he enacted the Twitter takeover last year.

“Elon has been talking about X, the everything app, for a very long time,” Yaccarino told Eisen. “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.”

Highlighting the possibility of digital payment capabilities within the app, Yaccarino said she and Musk look at the rebrand as a “liberation from Twitter,” in that it should change how people congregate, entertain, and transact in one unified platform.

“Payments -- there’s been a lot of talk about that,” she said. “Payments between you and a friend, between you and one of your creators.”

In addition to in-app payments, Yaccarino claimed that X users will soon be able “to make video chat calls without having to give your phone number to anyone on the platform.”

The announcement acts as a likely callback to a recent post from X designer Andrea Conway that read: “Just called someone on X,” hinting at the fact that in-app video chatting is already being tested.

In relation to brand safety, Yaccarino told Eisen that after deserting the platform due to the proliferation of hate speech and harmful content, major brands like Coca-Cola and Visa have returned to advertising due to her attempts to directly engage with marketing and communications executives.

On Tuesday, Yaccarino took to X to celebrate the release of the platform's new advertiser controls and third-party partnerships, which she told Eisen would reduce advertiser risk and protect brands “from the risk of being next to” toxic content.

She went on to claim that the operational run rate, or financial performance, at the company was “pretty close to break even.”

Finally, the former advertising head at NBCUniversal announced the comeback of X's Client Council, an invitation-only group of marketing and advertising agency executives that deteriorated shortly after Musk bought the company due to concerns over content moderation policies and widespread job cuts.

“Excited to continue momentum in our business and we are officially bringing back the client council in the fall,” Yaccarino said in a tweet on Thursday.

It still has not been determined who will be joining the council.