Updated 9 months ago
Twitter rebrands as X
By Jessica Hartogs, Editor at LinkedIn NewsUpdated 9 months ago
Twitter has officially become X, after owner Elon Musk announced a company rebrand over the weekend. Musk had tweeted the news Sunday, saying an interim logo would replace the social media platform's famous blue bird logo, with the domain X.com directing to Twitter's site as well. The move is part of Musk’s overall goal to make X the "everything" app he foresees, which would include messaging, social media and payment services — similar to China's WeChat. He explained, "The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird." Twitter's business name has been X Corp since October.
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Another brand choosing to remove tons of IP and equity in their name and identity. First it was Max choosing to ditch the HBO and the color purple which had differentiated them among the streaming providers. Now they’re blue like many others. And now, a big move to pivot completely away from the equity built into Twitter and it’s icon to move to X. I’m assuming there’s more coming on this… But what do you guys think about the move? Is this going to be the next mktg trend? Is there some insight in ditching high-equity identities that I am not aware of? Genuinely would love opinions and to learn from anyone who has some insight on this.
Twitter has replaced its longtime bird logo with an X to fit owner Elon Musk's preferred aesthetic. The branding change comes about three months after Musk officially replaced Twitter the company with a successor firm called X Corp. Over the weekend, Musk wrote that "soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds," and invited users to come up with a new logo. He also wrote that a tweet will now be called an "X," and noted that his X.com domain now redirects to Twitter. People pointed out that the rushed-out logo looks just like a decades-old Unicode character. Musk is calling it an "interim X logo." The future logo that replaces it will presumably be more unique. To mark the logo change, Musk posted a series of X-related tweets (or X-related Xs), including one image of the Twitter headquarters with a large X projected on the side of the building. While the Twitter.com domain still exists, Musk reportedly told Twitter employees "that he'd just sent them the last email he'd ever send from a Twitter email address." Read more on the rebrand over at Ars Technica. https://trib.al/qxYdyVk
As you may have heard, Elon Musk has decided to rebrand Twitter as simply "X." The X itself, Jesus Diaz notes, looks strikingly similar to the classic X Windows logo from 1984. It's part of a sudden shift in branding from the iconic blue bird to the new, single-letter name that seemed to happen basically overnight. • Musk posted “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow." A user followed up with a design, it is now the logo. • He has, of course, already played around quite a bit with Twitter's brand, changing the logo for a time to dogecoin’s Shiba Inu and renaming its headquarters to “Titter." • Branding expert Pau Dueñas told Fast Company: “I doubt the X brand is available and could be registered. I don’t know how he can pull this off." Read more about Twitter's sudden change to X here: https://lnkd.in/gcnCumDP
Let's just say what needs to be said about this Elon Musk "X" rebrand of Twitter: - There's no grand strategy, just a man who bought a company trying to leave his mark. - Despite the complaints about marketing and branding departments, there's a reason they get paid. - Twitter wasn't a perfect brand, but it was good enough. You fly through the timeline, you tweet, it was memorable. The brand was never the problem. - I actually like the idea of X being the intersection of a bunch of categories, like text, video, shopping, and payments — which Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino claimed — but Twitter needs to show some progress on any of this before "X" looks anything but haphazard. - As Scott Galloway said, pay your debts first, then let's talk about you being a payments platform. But not before. - In sum, at least Musk looks like he's having fun. There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, you spend $44 billion on a social platform and change the name.
Threads, Meta Platform's broadside to Twitter, is seen by some advertisers as less contentious and more predictable than Elon Musk's platform, and analysts say it could lure away marketing budgets - eventually. Launched on July 5, Threads became the fastest-growing social media platform to hit 100 million users, the apparent first serious threat to the dominant microblogging Twitter app. On Sunday, Musk said Twitter would rebrand and change its logo to an X. Threads saw a drop-off in downloads and engagement in the week following its buzzy debut, according to research firm Sensor Tower, and for now is not open to ads. But analysts have forecast lofty ad spending targets - with the caveat that they depend on whether users stick on. with Samritha Arunasalam and Sheila Dang for Reuters https://lnkd.in/gg8YHHfk
Now that X.com officially redirects to #Twitter and the blue bird will be ditched, is this Elon’s attempt to turn twitter into an ‘Everything App? If this attempt is successful, I can see the emerge of something similar to #WeChat … WeChat is extremely successful in China and is the go-to app for almost EVERYTHING! A similar app for the rest of the world could really fill in the gap and eliminate the number of different apps used to accomplish different things such as; Social connectivity, news, money transfers, ride sharing/taxi’s, food delivery, bills & utilities, finance & investments, reservations (movie theatres, restaurants, hotels) and so on… And I believe the infrastructure is mostly there! I hope that’s the case and that customer experience is at the center of it all! One-click-purchases and efficient
Threads isn't dead. Twitter isn't dead. Stop it. When a platform gets 100m users in the matter of a few days, then a week later there are 23m daily active users, every headline is saying: 'Threads is dead! Down 77% from peak!' I hear that stat and think: "23m users hung on to essentially an MVP product!? And when new features and press drops, 77m more people will already have it on their phone for retargeting?!" Let's be honest: in terms of feature set, Threads does kind of suck. It's clean, but it doesn't have much fun-factor yet. But it's 17 DAYS OLD!!! It's WAY too early to call it dead, or say it's going to kill Twitter, or know how it's going to evolve yet. I haven't even seen a major update pushed yet. I always think back to a panel I moderated at Digital Entertainment World in 2015-ish. It was a panel of top gaming YouTubers and Twitch streamers (names redacted to protect the innocent). During Q&A, someone asked about Snapchat. Every single creator on the panel said Snap was dead. Someone asked about game streaming on YouTube. Everyone on the panel agreed: it will never work. Musical.ly (TikTok bought and rebranded it in 2017)? No chance. Vine is way cooler. Facebook video? They said no way, no how. I just searched their names on Facebook and around half of them have active Facebook profiles posting video today (Jellysmack perhaps?) It's important that we all take a breath and remember how this horserace works. Directives change, features change, markets change, and suddenly a platform with no momentum can become the hottest platform. Likewise, the coolest platform can disappear overnight. I believe Threads has more ways to win than lose. Calling 23m daily active users a few weeks after launch proof that it's dead is ridiculous. I can think of 100 ways Threads can win. Let's just hope they do to. #socialmedia #creatoreconomy #meta https://lnkd.in/ePawMcwA
Threads in decline? Don't count out Instagram's new Twitter rival yet |…
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The X obsession…it’s history repeating. Twitter’s rebrand feels “overnight”, but it has a long lead time. The sudden name and logo change feel adhoc and experimental…particularly given Elon Musk’s crowd-sourcing of the design. But this shift to “X” has been a theme for a while. Holding companies “X Corp” were formed earlier this year, in March, giving Twitter a new parent company and driving speculation it would be the eventual home for Tesla and Space X. But it goes back further than this year, and I don’t just mean the naming of his son in 2020. Back in 2017, he bought back the domain to X.com - which had lain dormant since 1999 when he merged his payments startup with that of Peter Thiel in the creation of PayPal. Even back in the 90s Musk’s vision for X was greater than that of a payments business, as Max Chafkin writes in his amazing book about Thiel. So what is that current grand plan? A super company? A super app like we see in China like WeChat? In a tweet/x (still working on what we now call them…) the CEO of the social media company Linda Yaccarino discussed a vision of “unlimited interactivity” - so think audio, video, messaging, as well as payments and financial offerings. So, what’s your view? A terrifying distraction of brand equity? A vision that’s going to pay off? A billionaire being a billionaire? Let me know!
Twitter rebrands to X! The rebranding is a journey towards Elon Musk goal of making Twitter an "Everything App" where you can connect socially, message apply for jobs, make payments, e-commerce etc. He borrows the concept heavily from China's super app, WeChat. In April 2023, Twitter Inc changed to X Corp. But why X? Elon Musk seems to have some sensational meaning to letter X look at how he has used it: —His early venture was named X.com merged with Confinity Inc. and became PayPal —He has son named X —There is Tesla car model called X —The rockets and Spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX has an X — His Newly launched AI company is called XAi — And now Twitter changes to X What do you make of the Twitter rebrand? You can also read more updates on my Newsletter this week here https://lnkd.in/dW9p2tUF #twitter #rebranding #socailmediamarketing #socialmedia #ElonMusk #DigitalTrends #ecommerce
#Twitter has rebranded to #X: A reminder that #Musk, not Threads or any other app, is and has always been the most likely "Twitter killer." So what does this mean? It's an end of an era, but the writing was on the wall, I told Alexa Corse at The Wall Street Journal yesterday. Musk made clear from the start that he planned to transform Twitter into platform X. For many, the rebranding may feel largely symbolic: The Twitter corporate brand is already heavily intertwined with Musk's personal brand, with or without the name X. And Twitter is already a very different place than it was before Musk purchased it. Many users and advertisers have already made up their minds on whether to remain on the platform. IMO, the timing of the announcement is what counts here: #Meta has received a rare deluge of positive press for #Threads, and Musk wanted to take the news cycle back. Musk supporters will likely celebrate the rebranding, but the big question is: Will X ever be able to become the "everything app" that Musk envisions or is it too far gone? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
With the rebranding of Twitter to ‘X’, will this open up an opportunity for creators? Rebrands often bring along their fair share of challenges: 1. Overcoming past perceptions 2. Confusion with consumers 3. Rebuilding brand loyalty However, any move made by Elon Musk always creates news and the impact ‘X’ could create is no doubt exciting for the Creator Economy. With the rise of AI, I'm interested to see if creators can grow their careers in the way other social media platforms provide - there is a large opportunity here. We have seen recent efforts to reward creators through ad-revenue shares, but what other incentives would give creators a reason to use ‘X’ which no other platform is doing? #Twitter #Creators
Twitter has officially rebranded to "X." So tweets are now "Xeets." Tweeting is now "Xeeting." And Twitter users are now "X-men." Jokes aside, this rebrand marks a new era for Twitter. Like Facebook's recent rebrand to Meta, Musk's decision to rename Twitter as "X" seems like an effort to shift perceptions and re-energize the brand. And with rising competition, especially with the Threads launch, this renaming couldn't have happened at a more crucial time. "X" needs to stand out, not just as a remodeled Twitter but as a platform with unique features and values. It's an opportunity to re-engage existing users and attract a new user base. And yes, “X" is a pretty broad name — but it's like a blank canvas, leaving room for the platform to evolve in any direction it chooses. At the end of the day, the name is just a label, and the actual change will come from the strategies and policies implemented. But for "X", the new name is the first step in this journey of transformation, promising an exciting new phase of growth and innovation. 🤔 What are your thoughts on the rebrand? #creatoreconomy #creators #socialmedia #twitter #tech
On Monday, Twitter's new "X' branding took over the desktop app and launched tweetstorms — or should they now be called “Xstorms”? At one point, all trending topics referred to the change, brands like Xbox (which shares a similar logo) got pulled into the discussion, and the hashtag “RIPTwitter” gained steam. Many marketing and advertising experts had a lot to say about the equity Elon is dropping, what it could mean for the future of the brand, and what “X” actually brings to mind. Brands are also having some fun with the update: #socialmedia #elonmusk #twitterx
Musk has alluded turning Twitter into X for some time. It's not 'just' a rebrand. It's about something much bigger. His long term goals and aspirations are to create a 'super app' a la WeChat, etc in China. A destination for everything - social, commerce, messaging. A holistic ecosystem. Apps within an app. Given Twitter's troubles - its likely he'll have difficulty getting the audience and revenue traction to bring the vision to life. While audience numbers are difficult to know for sure (some reports show a decline, while Twitter has recently claimed all time highs). One thing is not in doubt - declining revenue. Half of the platforms top advertisers have paused ad spends. https://lnkd.in/gwwSAT9k