A brand logo symbolizes the brand’s motives and company values. Twitter’s blue bird signifies the straightforward intention of the social media platform– expressing your thoughts in quick and short tweets on a global portal. Plus, Twitter’s motto sums up the benefits of the medium–
“Twitter is where you go to see what’s happening everywhere in the world right now.”
–Twitter CMO Leslie Berland
After six months of grueling back and forth, tech mogul Elon Musk officially cracked the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on October 2022. Since then, the acquisition has met with a myriad of controversies and modifications.
And one year later, Twitter lost its iconic brand logo.
On 23 July 2023, Twitter’s CTO tweeted the news of the platform’s rebranding–
Elon Musk announced that Twitter would be branded as X promptly. Until then, an interim logo will replace the icon later that day. Twitter’s official account has already replaced the bird icon with “X,” and soon, Twitter will be officially called as only one-letter name– X.
The main intent of this rebranding is to integrate additional features, including videos, audio, online transactions, gaming portals, and more. The purpose of X is to create a global social media portal for convenience, similar to WeChat, a Chinese-based company that serves as a multi-purpose platform.
What will this renaming entail? Has the platform’s purpose changed? What more can we expect? Let us decode the intent and reason behind the rebranding.
Various Concerns In Twitter After The Acquisition
Right after buying Twitter, Elon Musk changed the strategy for the company’s operations.
- The first step of this new model was restructuring the existing resources. And hence began, the laid-off process for several executives. Out of these were Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, policy chief Vijaya Gadde and CFO Nel Segal.
- Moreover, several advertisers pulled out owing to their falling advertising revenues by half.
- This led to a domino effect of slashing more workforce to reduce costs.
- Later, Musk proposed several changes in the Twitter policy, including the coveted verification badge or the blue tick to be awarded only after paying the additional charges.
- The word count and the rate limit also changed based on whether or not the account had a blue tick. Naturally, people were irked by the blatant disregard for the original intentions of the free platform.
- Moreover, Musk advocated for a free speech policy, which also met with specific issues pertaining to Twitter guidelines. E.g., as seen in the case of the free streaming of the documentary “What is a Woman.”
- Then Elon Musk declared negative cash flow due to a sudden dropping in advertisers and other investors.
“We’re still negative cash flow due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”
- And then, in the dog-eat-dog world, Mark Zuckerberg launched a Twitter-style app, Threads, that allows posting text and other features in conjunction with your existing Instagram account.
Needless to say, Twitter was in dire need of immediate remodeling.
Reason Behind Twitter’s Rebranding
Twitter is a global platform used as a news portal for trending topics, political warfare, celebrity PR, and so much more. But as per the new owner, Twitter needs to upgrade to something bigger and offer more services.
The new executive decision was announced in May this year of registering the company under X.corp. Musk has a vision of rebranding the micro-blogging platform to a multi-purpose portal for integrating more audio, video, and online payments.
As per the new business model to appease advertisers and users, the app will include features like payments, job search, messaging, and more.
According to Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino–
“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.”
When Will Twitter Become X? What Can We Expect?
After reassigning Twitter’s logo, the platform will be officially named X in the upcoming days.
EXPECTATIONS:
The X app is estimated to serve as a portal for quick payments, gaming, business, paying bills, job search, trades, and more. The new model will operate on similar lines as that of Chinese owned platform, WeChat.
SUPER APPS:
The X app is marketed as the new super app. WeChat is a super app where you can practically access anything– from ordering goods to hailing a cab, gaming, third-party apps hosted by the app, and even sharing their government IDs.
Elon Musk has proposed a version of WeChat by rebranding Twitter as X and making a super app synonymous with the “internet” itself.
What are your thoughts on Twitter being called X? What will the “tweets” be called now? Would you access Twitter as a mode of payment?
Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.
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