The newest contentious alteration features a billionaire’s statement that an ‘interim X’ design will substitute the recognizable pale-blue bird
Elon Musk’s latest announcement on Twitter’s logo came on Sunday, revealing that the new logo, an X, would replace the distinctive bird logo. This change marks the most recent in a series of controversial shake-ups under his leadership on the social media platform.
In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, the Tesla CEO stated, “X.com now points to twitter.com,” and mentioned that the interim X logo would go live later that day.
Having acquired the site for $44 billion last October, Musk had expressed his intentions in the early hours of Sunday to replace the blue avian silhouette with an “X” logo, provided a suitable design was offered, as early as Monday.
In April, Musk had already altered the company’s official name to X Holdings Corp, drawing inspiration from his earlier venture, X.com, with the vision of creating an “X, the everything app” that combines social media and payment functions, similar to China’s WeChat.
If the rebranding proceeds, it will be the latest illustration of Musk’s inclination to announce significant and contentious changes to the site seemingly impromptu on his public feed, resulting in mixed reactions.
According to Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, the change will likely confuse a substantial portion of Twitter users who have already been disenchanted with the platform due to other major alterations made by Musk. He remarked, “They won’t understand it,” and sees it as a fitting conclusion to the remarkable unraveling of an iconic brand and business.
Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s chief executive, affirmed the launch of the X brand on Sunday. In a tweet, she expressed, “It’s an exceedingly rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.
Despite cutting half of the company’s staff following the acquisition, Musk recently disclosed that it still faces negative cash flow and carries a substantial debt burden. This situation arose due to the loss of half its advertising revenue, thwarting Musk’s plans to achieve positive cash flow by June.
Upon Musk’s takeover, numerous advertisers departed the platform, concerned about potential damage to their brands amid the initial disorder. Their decreased ad spending was partly due to apprehensions about changes made by the new owner, which allowed hateful content to proliferate. To address this issue and win back advertisers who paused or significantly reduced their spending, the appointment of Yaccarino, a highly regarded advertising executive, was a key strategy.
Musk’s decisions, such as eliminating the legacy “blue ticks” for verified users while allowing others to pay for verification, have often faced criticism and have been revised or reversed in response to public backlash.
Threads, described as a text-based version of Meta’s Instagram, created as a separate space for real-time updates and public conversations, attracted a staggering 100 million sign-ups within its initial five days.
The disclosure about Twitter’s logo removal was unsurprisingly made on Musk’s account, where he tweeted: “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
In a subsequent post, he added: “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make [it] go live worldwide tomorrow.”
Musk also explained his motive for changing the symbol, aiming “to embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.” He accompanied his statement with a photo of himself making an “X” symbol with crossed arms in front of a Tesla Model X car poster, humorously commenting, “Not sure what subtle clues gave it away, but I like the letter X.
However, in April, the Twitter logo saw a momentary replacement by a shiba inu dog, the symbol of the dogecoin cryptocurrency, which contributed to a surge in the meme coin’s market value.
As for whether the logo change to an X will be permanent, uncertainty remains, given Musk’s track record of unevenly fulfilling his Twitter promises.
In December of the previous year, he pledged to abide by the results of a Twitter poll asking whether he should continue as the site’s chief executive. Despite users advising him to step down, Musk eventually hinted he would do so only when he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.” Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive, was confirmed in the role in May.
If Musk does eventually replace the Twitter bird with an X, it won’t be the first time the platform has undergone rebranding. In 2018, Dorsey revealed that the company was briefly known as “twttr” before the vowels were added back in.
