Introduction

Elon Musk has always liked the letter X, which is why he has used it in most of his businesses, and now he is killing Twitter’s iconic bluebird trademark in favor of the X in an attempt to turn his $44 billion acquisition into something truly his.

Critics see Musk X’s vision as something like China’s WeChat, a huge app that people can use to have fun and buy goods and services online, as well as post updates and messages to their friends.

Challenges and Risks

Musk’s announcement to change the app’s logo comes after months of erratic behavior by the world’s richest man, resulting in reluctance from some users and alienating advertisers from the app, leaving Twitter in financial hardship and increasingly vulnerable to competition.

And Mike Prue, an analyst at Forrester, says killing a popular online brand is “extremely risky” as competing apps like the new Instagram Thread and smaller startups like Bluesky lure users in.

Proulx added to CNBC that Musk “single-handedly excluded a well-known brand from our cultural lexicon over the past 15 years.”

Observers say the logo change isn’t a completely unexpected move, as Musk has already converted Twitter’s name to X Corp to become a subsidiary of X Holding Corp, a lawsuit revealed in April.

Last October, ahead of the Twitter purchase, Musk said he sees the $44 billion deal as “a boost to Create X, and it’s the application of everything.”

The letter X features prominently in the name of Musk’s space company SpaceX. More than two decades ago, X.com was the name of Musk’s payments company, which eventually became PayPal through a merger with then-rival.

The name change has become quite common among the big web companies as Facebook went meta in late 2021 and Google adopted the name Alphabet. However, these name-changed parent companies have retained the brand for their core services.

For her part, Linda Iaccarino, who Musk named CEO in May, said in an email to employees on Monday that the company “will continue to delight our entire community with new voice, video, messaging, payments, and banking experiences, creating a global marketplace of ideas, products, services, and opportunities.”

Pru says that Musk’s desire to turn X into a super app required “time, money and people” that Twitter “no longer has.” And earlier this month, Musk admitted that Twitter ad revenue had fallen 50%.

Some advertisers have become concerned about promoting their products on Twitter due to reports of an increase in hate speech and racist and offensive comments on the platform, as documented by many civil rights groups and researchers.

Musk tried to partially offset the reduction in advertising with an $8-a-month premium subscription, as the company would need tens of millions of subscribers to make up for the loss.

Reactions and Consequences

Inside Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg said in an emailed statement that the name change marks “a dark day for many Twitter users and advertisers” and “a clear sign that Twitter, famous for the past 17 years, is gone and will not return.”

“The Twitter renaming is a reminder that Musk, and not Thread or any other app, was and probably still is the killer of Twitter,” Enberg wrote.