UNITED STATE, July 25 – After 17 years with the iconic blue bird symbolizing broadcasting ideas to the world, billionaire Elon Musk has renamed Twitter as X and unveiled a new logo, signaling a shift towards building an “everything app.” The stylized white X on a black background is now the new logo on Twitter’s website, although the blue bird still remains on the mobile app. Since taking over Twitter last October, Musk has expressed his vision of creating an app that goes beyond social media, offering various services like peer-to-peer payments.
This move takes inspiration from the immensely popular WeChat app in China. Experts believe that the rebranding is more about Musk making his mark on the company. Tom Morton, the global chief strategy officer at ad agency R/GA, said, Twitter’s changing name and logo has nothing to do with user, advertiser, or market issues. It’s a symbol that Twitter is Elon Musk’s personal property. He conquered the castle, now he’s flying his own flag. The new logo has sparked mixed reactions among users, with some expressing confusion about the terminology.
Marketing and branding experts are concerned that this rebranding may undermine years of Twitter’s name recognition. Matt Rhodes, strategy lead at creative agency House 337, pointed out that anything that makes it harder for people to find, or want to open the app on their cluttered phone screens risks harming usage. On Monday, outside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, police stopped construction workers from removing the Twitter sign, indicating resistance to the rebranding.
Musk, who has used the letter X repeatedly across his companies, previously co-founded x.com as an online bank in 1999 (later transformed into PayPal) and bought back the domain x.com from PayPal in 2017 for its “sentimental value.” Linda Yaccarino, the former advertising chief at NBCUniversal and the current Twitter CEO, shared in a memo on Monday that X “will go even further to transform the global town square.”
The company will work on new features in audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking, according to the memo. The rebrand signals Musk’s commitment to transforming Twitter and its broader empire, including SpaceX, with the X branding becoming a common thread among his ventures. However, analysts and experts suggest that the rebranding may not address all the challenges Twitter is facing.
The company has experienced layoffs, a drop in advertisers, and increasing competition from Meta’s Threads, a rival to Twitter. Drew Benvie, CEO of social media consultancy Battenhall, remarked that this move is less about reinventing Twitter and more about building a brand around Elon Musk’s empire. As the platform ventures into a new era with its rebranding as X, it will undoubtedly face numerous challenges in redefining its business and establishing its identity under Musk’s vision.
