When was x.com built?
Analyzed 8 November 2026. Re-analyze
Estimated launch
April 1997
There's good evidence for the year, but the exact month is less certain.
BuiltWhen verified that x.com launched in April 1997 (65% confidence), despite the domain being registered in April 1993, resolving a 4-year domain parking gap where the domain was held before web content was deployed.
- Earlier archived copies show a placeholder or parking page, which narrows the launch window.
- Website age
- ~29.5 years
- From estimated launch
- Domain registered
- April 1993
- Not the launch date
- First evidence
- April 1997
- Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
- Current version
- No clear redesign
- A possible change is in the timeline
History at a glance
The domain and the website have separate lives. Website age is measured from the launch, not from registration.
Timeline
April 1993
Domain registered
The domain was registered. This is not the same as the website launching.
Confirmed
December 1996 – April 1997
Between October 2007 and May 2013
Between May 2013 and March 2020
Between March 2023 and May 2025
Built with today
This website asks crawlers not to fetch its homepage, so we only used historical evidence.
Why we think it launched in 19974 pieces of evidence, each linked to its source
- First archived copy of the website: April 1997.
- Last archived placeholder page: December 1996 (4 months earlier).
April 1993
Domain registered
The domain's current registration began on this date. A website can only launch after this, but often launches much later.
Sets the earliest possible dateRDAP registry dataView source
December 1996
Last archived placeholder page
The archive still showed a placeholder here (Coming soon page), so the real website launched after this.
Sets the earliest possible dateInternet Archive (Wayback Machine)View source
April 1997
First archived copy of the website
The earliest successful snapshot of the homepage showing real website content in the Internet Archive.
The estimate is based on thisInternet Archive (Wayback Machine)View source
May 2013
Drupal first seen
Drupal appears in archived copies of the site from this date.
Background onlyInternet Archive (Wayback Machine)
What we checked
- Domain registry (RDAP)Checked
- Internet Archive indexChecked
- Live websiteUnavailable
- Archived page comparisonChecked
181 months of archived homepage copies; 13 compared in detail (sampling was cut short). BuiltWhen estimates from observable evidence and can be wrong. How estimates work
Domain registrationRegistered April 1993 · GoDaddy.com, LLC
- Registered
- 2 April 1993
- Registration expires
- 20 October 2034
- Registry record updated
- 3 December 2024
- Registrar
- GoDaddy.com, LLC
- Nameservers
- a.r10.twtrdns.net, a.u10.twtrdns.net, b.r10.twtrdns.net, b.u10.twtrdns.net, c.r10.twtrdns.net, c.u10.twtrdns.net, d.r10.twtrdns.net, d.u10.twtrdns.net
Public registry data via RDAP. Registrant details are never collected.