Business
Musk’s New Twitter Rebrand X: Good or Bad for Business?
They said it wouldn’t happen, but here we are: Elon Musk has killed Twitter. Well, rebranded it.
Twitter is now simply X, and people both on and off the popular social platform are going, “Huh?” We’ll explore what the new branding means, how likely it is to stick, and what the reasoning behind it might be.
What happened to Twitter?
If you logged onto Twitter for the first time in a bit this week, you may have been hit with a shock. That iconic blue bird in the upper left has been replaced by a simple unicode character: 𝕏.
The announcement came suddenly, late at night on July 24th: Twitter was no more. The social network would now be called “X,” and gradually, all Twitter branding would be dropped, courtesy of executive chair Elon Musk.
Changing that upper right logo on Twitter for Desktop was easy—earlier this year, Musk replaced it with a doge meme. After that, Musk made x.com redirect to Twitter and changed all company profiles from “Twitter” to “X.” They actually had to buy the Twitter handle @X, which had been taken since 2007.
Is Twitter gone?
So far, a lot of X is still Twitter. The app is still Twitter, the URL is still twitter.com, and the old blue bird is still easy to find. Funny enough, if you open X without a login, you’ll see the X logo above an invitation to “Join Twitter today.”
If this rebrand continues apace, it could be a few months before the Twitter branding is fully dropped. For some, the new name represents a new beginning. But some legacy users may take this as a sign that Twitter as they knew it is dead.
Why did Twitter rebrand?
According to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company hopes to move away from social networking and towards a much broader range of digital services. They want to turn Twitter into a space for media, marketing, messaging, banking, and more, all powered by AI.
How has Twitter branding changed over time?
Up until now, Twitter has had some of the most consistent branding in all of social media. By the time it went public in 2006, it already had the light blue bird branding—and a lot of the same UI design we associate with it today.
In 2012, Twitter underwent their biggest rebrand. They dropped their wordmark and introduced a sleeker, more iconic version of their blue bird logo. Since then, Twitter branding went essentially unchanged for 11 years.
To put that into perspective, Twitter is essentially the only social network to keep its branding from the early ‘10s. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have all rebranded since then; Foursquare and Google+, two of the era’s other heavy hitters, have gone under.
Through that lens, it might make sense for Musk, Yaccarino, and the rest of the Twitter team to feel that a refresh was necessary. On the other hand, Musk’s own history indicates something a little more personal.
Elon Musk’s history with the letter X
Let’s take it back to October 2022, before Twitter got bought out by Musk and back when it was, if nothing else, fairly reliable.
Musk was weeks away from closing the deal, after unsuccessfully trying to pull out of it. After much secrecy, he finally offered a cryptic insight into why he chose to buy the social network:
Let’s back it up even further, actually.
1999: Musk co-founds X.com
One of the most talked-about promises for the new Twitter is a banking hub. But that idea goes all the way back to the original x.com, an online bank founded by Musk in 1999.
The bank merged with its biggest competitor, Confinity, in 2000. Later that year, the board voted to replace Musk as CEO with Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel, while Musk was away on his honeymoon.
The next year, the company was renamed PayPal.
2002: SpaceX takes flight
Musk’s next endeavor was a space development project with the goal to reduce the costs of space travel and eventually colonize Mars. Its full name is the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, but it’s commonly referred to as Space… X.
2017: Musk buys back X.com
Two years after releasing his Tesla Model X, Elon bought back the X.com domain from PayPal, citing its “great sentimental value.” As of this week, it now redirects to Twitter.
2020: Musk names his child X
Musk has had 10 kids with 4 partners, but the most notorious is his bizarre romance with indie pop star Grimes. Their child, born in 2020, is infamously named X Æ A-12, but referred to by both parents as X.
2023: Twitter, Inc. becomes X Corp.
Months prior to rebranding Twitter as X, Musk brought the social network under a new business, X Corp., announcing that the Twitter company “no longer exists.”
Is the Twitter rebrand good or bad?
That’s a matter of personal opinion, but there’s certainly plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Here’s some pros and cons:
Pros of the Twitter rebrand
A fresh start: Clearly, Musk’s plan for Twitter for at least the past year has been to use it as a launchpad for his “everything app.” If the plan is to roll out new, useful tech to Twitter’s large user base, it could turn out positive in the long run.
Twitter’s baggage: Like most of Silicon Valley, Twitter’s rep has soured in the past decade. Even before Musk took over, it became synonymous with toxic discourse, fake news, and harassment. While Musk’s constant changes didn’t help matters, they’re another reason why a brand refresh might be necessary. Facebook doesn’t want to be Facebook anymore, why should Twitter want to be Twitter?
Thinking bigger: When Tucker Carlson took to Twitter, he quickly fell off the map. The fact is, people don’t see Twitter as a place for long-form video. Musk clearly hopes to change that, and maybe abandoning Twitter’s rep for 280-character microblogging is the way to do it.
Cons of the Twitter rebrand
Twitter’s old branding is iconic: Twitter never had the biggest user base, but its cultural cache was undeniable. After making Twitter more toxic—and more annoying—many would argue that the only value it had left was its brand name. Musk’s $44 billion investment was already bleeding cash, and now it’s shed its tremendous brand recognition on purpose?
Pushing users away: A rebrand can be a fresh start for a brand when it’s accompanied by new offerings, but all this one does is encourage legacy users to jump ship. Twitter’s dead, now you’re hanging around on Elon’s pet project. That’ll be eight dollars.
Poor concept: We’re getting into opinions here, but let’s be real. Remember when U2 put their album on everyone’s phone? Now, Elon is foisting his “everything app” on Twitter’s user base. No one asked for it, it’s a 12-year-old’s idea of a cool app, and if it goes as smoothly as the other recent changes at Twitter, it’s dead on arrival.
Why do companies rebrand?
Branding is an important element of any company. Whether you use an in-house team or outside help, keeping your brand consistent across channels is key to business growth.
At Owners Mag, we rely on Penji, a subscription-based graphic design service, to keep our branding fresh.
Growing companies often rebrand when they plan to reach a broader audience or expand their offerings. As they scale, they may be able to afford higher-end branding, or have a greater need for brand consistency.
When a major company like Facebook or Twitter rebrands, it’s a dangerous game. Customers know these brands well, and they often react negatively to changes—even minor ones. So, why do they do it?
- Shifting focus: If a brand wants to change its identity, changing their visuals can help. This can reflect new values, new services, or changes in company structure. It’s the stated reason for the Twitter rebrand; they want to move away from microblogging and towards an “everything app.”
- Reputation control: This is another potential reason for Twitter’s rebrand. When a company develops an extremely negative reputation, it may change its name and branding to help lighten it. In 2003, infamous tobacco company Philip Morris rebranded as Altria.
- Modernizing: Ever notice how logos have gotten flatter and simpler over time? Consumer brands will make more subtle changes to their logo & branding to reflect changing aesthetics of the time. Many companies changed their branding in the mid-’10s to be more legible in different screen formats.
- Growing (or shrinking): Expanded to a new market? Dropped a major product line? Got bought out by another company? Any fundamental changes are often seen as a chance to rebrand, even if you’re not changing your values.
- Change for change’s sake: Not the most satisfying answer, but it’s true: companies often change their branding for no particular reason. Put yourself in the shoes of a new executive at a major brand. It’s had the same logo for decades now. Wouldn’t you be tempted to try something new?
From what we know, the Twitter rebrand seems to be a deliberate and planned choice. It reflects the platform’s desire to be much more than a space for short text posts.
The problem is, they haven’t introduced many of these promised features yet. For free users, Twitter doesn’t offer anything it didn’t offer a year ago; it just has a dull, forgettable new logo.