Twitter leadership has begun shifting out its previous branding in favor of Elon Musk’s new X brand.
Key Details
- On Sunday, Musk revealed on Twitter that the “Twitter” branding would swiftly be swapped out from branding, marketing materials, website addresses, and app icons within the next day in exchange for “X.”
- “Soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted, later posting the new X logo on his account.
- New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino released a Twitter thread on Sunday defending the new vision for X.com, saying, “It’s an exceptionally rare thing—in life or in business—that you get a second chance to make another big impression.”
- Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reassured his followers not to get too excited and to “Keep calm and just x through it.”
Why It’s Important
The news of Twitter’s transformation is not surprising or new. Musk has been clear for months that he intends to transform his social media app into an “everything app” that supports financial technology, video sharing, and revenue sharing for content creators. Many of these features have already been enacted, with Twitter Blue subscribers recently being granted a portion of advertising revenue for their uploaded content.
As we previously reported, Musk opened three shell companies in Delaware under the name “X Holdings” in April 2022. He filed paperwork with the U.S. Treasury for licenses to develop the website into a payment processor and subsequently merged the companies in April 2023 into a single company. He aims “to become the biggest financial institution in the world.”
The social media platform still stands on shaky ground, and X is likely Musk’s major attempt to revitalize the network with a new image, aesthetic, and energy after months of sagging advertising revenues and a recent decline in users. Musk reported that Twitter’s advertising revenue is down roughly 50% from where it was when he took over the website, and the launch of rival “Twitter-Killer” app Threads has drawn a significant portion of his userbase away, although interest in the app has declined by 70% in the subsequent weeks.
Notable Quote
“Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square. X is the future state of unlimited interactivity—centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking—creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” says Yaccarino.
“For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started. There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well… everything. Elon Musk and I are looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world.”
