Elon Musk Rebrands Twitter As ‘X’

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has replaced its blue bird logo with “X”, and not just that, this is also the name of the social media platform. Twitter’s rebranding has been done on desktop version, but the mobile version is yet to see the changes.

Twitter has witnessed another change. Now ‘Tweets’, the posts on the social media site, have been replaced with “x’s”. Elon Musk also changed his profile picture with the brand’s new logo and his Twitter bio now reads “X.com”.

Musk has been thinking about creating a “super app” called X for months. This is his vision for a whole new social media platform. He said on Sunday that he had been wanting to change Twitter’s logo, tweeting: “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” He later shared a picture of the new X branding projected on one of the sides of San Francisco headquarters of Twitter.

Musk made many changes in Twitter, which also includes the social media company’s name from Twitter Inc. to X Corp. He said that the replacement “should have been done a long time ago”. He also tweeted a picture of a flickering X logo. When asked whether the Twitter logo would change, he replied on the platformn’s Spaces audio chat with “yes”.

Twitter’s new chief executive Linda Yaccarino wrote on Twitter that the brand X indicates the “future state of unlimited interactivity” and the platform is “a global marketplace for ideas and opportunities.” She further wrote, “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

It’s an exceptionally 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.

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 23, 2023

Users mourned the loss of Twitter bird logo, among whom is Martin Grasser, the logo designer who designed it in 2012. He wrote, “Today we say goodbye to this great blue bird.” Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey shared Grasser’s post along with a goat emoji, meaning ‘greatest of all time’.

Twitter wrote on its website that the blue bird logo is “our most recognisable asset. That’s why we’re so protective of it.”

Experts have showed serious concerns with the speedy change in twitter’s rebranding. Global cyber adviser at security firm ESET Jake Moore cautioned that the change from one brand name to another could aid in committing fraud, where scammers can copy persons or companies to stealthily acquire users’ data.

What’s in a name-X

Musk’s career has long witnessed the letter X associated with his companies. But he never told why is this so. His first business was known as X.com, an online banking platform, in 1999. After three years, the billionaire earned $165m when e-commerce website eBay bought X.com which was by then merged with online payment company PayPal.

Twitter has a new domain name X.com. Musk’s commercial American aerospace company also has X in it, called SpaceX. It was founded in 2002. He also named his first child with musician Grimes as – X Æ A-12 Musk. His artificial intelligence start-up is called xAI, an alternative to ChatGPT.