Elon Musk hopes to compete

Tech billionaire Elon Musk took a jab at LinkedIn as he launched a rival to the popular professional networking platform called X Hiring.

Musk took to X over the weekend and said LinkedIn — a Sunnyvale-based company that’s been owned by Microsoft Corp. since 2016 — was “cringe.” Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of about $244 billion, said he couldn’t bring himself to use the platform.

X Hiring is Musk’s solution to giving LinkedIn some competition. It allows verified organizations to showcase job listings on their respective handles on X, which until a month ago went by its original name — Twitter.

“Feature your most critical roles and organically reach millions of relevant candidates,” read XHiring’s official announcement Friday.

The service will cost companies that hold a verified-organization status on the network $1,000 per month and allow candidates to directly apply for roles on the XHirings platform. According to CNBC, the tool will allow for companies to import job data through applicant tracking systems or and XLM feed.

Though X’s past life has been known for arguing with strangers or looking at what’s trending, Musk’s move hopes to rival the professional profile network.

Linkedin, which was acquired by Microsoft Corp for $26.2 billion, is seeing a shift as its users are turning to the network for “self-promoted posting,” according to a report by Bloomberg News.

The report added the network saw users share 41% more content in spring 2023 compared to the same time period in 2021. Though, younger users say they find it strange to see personal posts on the network, the news site reported.