LONDON (AP) — Goodbye Twitter. Hiya X.
Elon Musk has unveiled a brand new “X” brand to switch Twitter’s well-known blue chook as he follows by with a serious rebranding of the social media platform he purchased for $44 billion final 12 months.
The X began showing on the high of the desktop model of Twitter on Monday, however the chook was nonetheless dominant throughout the smartphone app. In response to questions on what tweets could be referred to as when the rebranding is completed, Musk stated they might be referred to as Xs.
It’s yet one more change that Musk has made since buying Twitter that has alienated customers and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging web site weak to new threats, together with rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads that straight targets Twitter customers.
Musk had requested followers for brand concepts and selected one, which he described as minimalist Artwork Deco, saying it “definitely will likely be refined.” He changed his personal Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted an image of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
“And shortly we will bid adieu to the twitter model and, progressively, all of the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.
The X.com net area now redirects customers to Twitter.com, Musk stated.
“I can’t say I’m shocked, however I believe it’s a really egocentric determination,” stated Hannah Thoreson of Baltimore, Maryland, who’s used Twitter since 2009 for work and private posts.
“There are such a lot of small companies and so many nonprofits and so many authorities businesses and issues like that each one around the globe which have relied on Twitter for a few years to push their message and attain individuals,” she stated. “And so they all have the Twitter icon on every thing from their web site to their enterprise playing cards.”
Altering all this prices money and time, she added, to not point out the confusion that comes with a beforehand unknown model identify.
“I imply, do you need to do away with the Coca-Cola model in the event you’re Coca-Cola? Why would you do this?” stated Thoreson, who now primarily makes use of Mastodon.
Musk, CEO of Tesla, has lengthy been fascinated with the letter and had already renamed Twitter’s company identify to X Corp. after he purchased it in October.
The billionaire can also be CEO of rocket firm Area Exploration Applied sciences Corp., generally often called SpaceX. And he began a man-made intelligence firm this month referred to as xAI to compete with ChatGPT. In 1999, he based a startup referred to as X.com, an internet monetary providers firm now often called PayPal.
He additionally calls his son with the singer Grimes, whose precise identify is a set of letters and symbols, “X.”
Musk’s Twitter buy and rebranding are a part of his technique to create what he’s dubbed an “ every thing app ” much like China’s WeChat, which mixes video chats, messaging, streaming and funds. Musk has made quite a few drastic modifications since taking on Twitter, together with a shift to specializing in paid subscriptions, however he doesn’t all the time observe by on his attention-grabbing new coverage pronouncements.
Linda Yaccarino, the longtime NBC Common govt Musk tapped to be Twitter CEO in Could, posted the brand new brand and weighed in on the change, writing on Twitter that X could be “the longer term state of limitless interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, funds/banking — creating a worldwide market for concepts, items, providers, and alternatives.”
Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg referred to as the rebranding “the top of an period.”
“Twitter’s rebrand is a reminder that Elon Musk, not Threads or another app, is and has all the time been the most probably ‘Twitter killer,’” she stated.
It’s clear, Enberg stated, that the Twitter of the previous 17 years is gone.
“Musk supporters will seemingly have a good time the rebrand, nevertheless it’s a dismal day for a lot of Twitter customers and advertisers,” she stated. “Even so, Twitter’s company model is already closely intertwined with Musk’s private model, with or with out the identify X, and far of Twitter’s established model fairness has already been misplaced amongst customers and advertisers.”
However Paolo Pescatore, a tech and media analyst and founding father of PP Foresight, stated the change may very well be a good suggestion.
“Folks are actually getting more and more pissed off with a slew of apps, so driving utilization all in direction of one vacation spot will enhance engagement and in the end make it simpler for them,” he stated.
Others predicted the brand new identify will confuse a lot of Twitter’s viewers, which has already been souring on the social media platform following Musk’s different modifications, together with limiting the variety of tweets customers can learn every day. The brand new threshold is a part of an $8-per-month subscription service Musk rolled out earlier this 12 months in an try to spice up Twitter income.
Wiping out Twitter’s model identify recognition that was constructed up over 15 years is an “extraordinarily dangerous transfer,” as a result of it means Musk is ”primarily beginning over whereas its competitors is afoot,” stated Mike Proulx, a analysis director at world market analysis firm Forrester.
Twitter customers identified that few individuals seek advice from Alphabet, Google’s mother or father firm since 2015. Fb renamed itself Meta in 2021, however its assortment of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp and Fb — nonetheless retain their very own manufacturers and logos.
However Pescatore stated it is likely to be the precise time for the sweeping rebranding that Musk appears to bear in mind.
“The elimination of Twitter from existence will likely be tough for a lot of customers to grasp,” Pescatore stated. Nevertheless, “perhaps it’s time for one thing new in gentle of the unfavorable sentiment surrounding the corporate. A brand new begin over this difficult interval of main disruption and enchantment to new audiences.”
TheGrio is FREE in your TV through Apple TV, Amazon Hearth, Roku and Android TV. Additionally, please obtain theGrio cellular apps at this time!
