X.com (bank) From Founders to Present

X.com (bank) has a rich history that spans from its inception to the present day.

Founded by Elon Musk, X.com was initially launched in 1999 as an online payment system.

The company's early days were marked by intense competition in the online banking space.

In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, another online payment company, and was later renamed PayPal in 2001.

This merger was a pivotal moment in the company's history, paving the way for its future growth.

PayPal was eventually acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.

However, Elon Musk retained a significant stake in the company and continued to shape its direction.

In 2017, Musk announced the revival of X.com as a full-fledged bank, marking a new chapter in the company's history.

Today, X.com operates as a licensed bank, offering a range of financial services to its customers.

Its mission is to provide users with a seamless and secure banking experience.

Musk came out of the 1999 X.com deal with a memorable corporate email address: [email protected].

He believed deeply in the X.com URL and company name, which he thought was novel and intriguing enough to capture the company's gist.

X.com was one of only three single-letter URLs in the world at the time, along with q.com and z.com.

Musk thought X.com was the ideal address because it was easy to remember and type, especially on handheld devices with small keyboards.

He had a practical rationale for the name, as he envisioned a world where people would use handheld devices to access their full financial life.

Musk's experience with his first start-up, Zip2, had taught him the importance of choosing a good URL, after he regretted outsourcing the naming process to a branding firm.

Zip2's URL was literally one of the worst, with multiple variations of what it could mean.

Musk learned that you just have to use common sense when choosing a name, which is a better guide than relying on experts.

Elon Musk owned X.com in 2000, where it was the website for his online bank.

In 2001, X.com became PayPal, a major milestone in Musk's entrepreneurial journey.

Robert Walker, a software engineer, initially owned the X.com URL in 1999.

Musk's acquisition of X.com marked a significant shift in the company's direction.

PayPal had been acquired by eBay in 2002, leading to the creation of PayPal Labs in 2007.

By 2013, the URL had become a website for "x.commerce an eBay Inc. company".

X.com ceased banking operations on December 1, 2000, to focus on its online payment service, PayPal.

At its peak, X Finance had about 200,000 account holders, most of whom had already switched to a PayPal account by the time X.com made the decision to stop offering banking services.

The wind down of X.com's financial services had been planned since March 2000, when the company acquired PayPal.

In the past 11 months, the number of PayPal customers had ballooned from 10,000 to 4 million.

X.com will keep at least one hand in financial services by offering customers a chance to have their PayPal account balances swept into a money-market service at the end of each business day, earning a 5 percent return.

X.com makes a small profit from its customers' money-market deposits as well.