Twitter’s ‘X’ change may not resonate with users, brand experts say

As part of the revamp new owner Elon Musk has been attempting since buying Twitter last year, the microblogging platform’s iconic blue bird logo has been phased out and replaced with a more minimal white X on a black background.

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted on Sunday before revamping the brand’s logo overnight. The website’s link has also been changed to x.com, and employee accounts now feature an X instead of the bird. The new user-submitted logo is only a placeholder, as per Musk, who revealed it on Monday along with incoming chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino.

Read | The X factor: Twitter's many changes since Musk took over

“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,” Yaccarino tweeted along with a projection of the new logo on the walls of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

Yaccarino may have been hinting at a larger rebranding that Musk is attempting for the platform since he bought it for $44 million last year. Going forward, X will integrate audio, video, messaging, and even a payments system, “creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities, powered by AI,” the CEO said.

With this step, the Twitter that was once a darling of social media users has ceased to exist, as per experts, as a new super-app begins to take shape.

“Twitter no longer exists as an individual identity, so there is no question of the brand position being affected going forward. For all intents and purposes, X is the new super-app that Elon Musk intends to build, and while it currently retains various features and aspects of Twitter, the brand will adopt a new positioning going forward,” said Amitoj Singh Chandiok, Lead of Digital Planning & Growth Strategy at marketing agency Social Panga.

The billionaire’s obsession with the letter is apparent in the names of other companies he owns, including the space technology giant SpaceX and the newly launched artificial intelligence platform X AI. However, not all users would relate to the letter positively, which is often attributed to danger, error, negativity and the past, experts believe.

“There are certain values attached to the brand which he is diluting in an effort to differentiate further from what Twitter was before he took over. If people will migrate from the platform is yet to be seen. This revamp doesn’t seem to connect with the current audience base,” said Josraj Arakkal, Professor of Practice at SIMC, Pune.

#RIPTwitter was trending on the platform all day, as the move elicited criticism from users much like most of Musk’s other changes have. Since taking over, the billionaire has limited the number of tweets users can view per day, introduced a subscription based model for blue ticks, and brought back many troll accounts that had been banned earlier. In the meantime, the platform has lost almost half of its advertising revenue and has laid off nearly 7,500 staff members.