Twitter has rebranded itself to X.
When visiting the platform, the iconic bird logo has now changed to a simple black X, and x.com now redirects to twitter.com.
Owner Elon Musk has called the rebrand part of a broader effort to create an “everything app”.
An announcement shared with advertisers and agencies this morning highlighted the changes to the platform that have already occurred, including how the company has moved toward embracing long-form written and video content.
In a series of tweets, CEO Linda Yaccarino added: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centred 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.”
Analysis: Leaving the nest or jumping the shark?
The move to rebrand Twitter is a shock, even if Elon Musk’s prior decision-making as Twitter’s owner and former CEO mean few should be surprised by such a drastic measure.
Other tech and entertainment companies, like Meta Platforms (originally Facebook), Alphabet (originally Google), and Max (originally HBO Max) have also undergone rebrands in recent years to reposition their offerings, but this feels to have been less thought through. Twitter’s branding is iconic, and so suddenly tossing it out for something else appears like more of a stunt than a strategy.
That said, Musk appears to want to position X as more closely linked to his other properties. It’s not yet clear how they will fit together, or what Musk really means by wanting to create an “everything app”, but he apparently sees X as playing a key part in his grand vision for the next generation of the web.
The move has been mostly lampooned across the internet as just the latest example of Musk’s instability as a business leader. “People still call our streaming service 4OD so good luck” tweeted (or should that now be ‘X-ed’?) Channel 4. Yaccarino’s buzzword-filled announcement of the change was derided as akin to a speech made by Succession character Kendall Roy.
For advertisers, any such rebrand matters little compared to what X does to address brand safety concerns. If the past is anything to go by, under Musk, X will continue to do very little in that area.
Meanwhile, Meta’s microblogging competitor Threads is seeking to capitalise on the chaos. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted at “lots of basic functionality coming soon” to the app.
