By KELVIN CHAN (AP Business Writer)
LONDON (AP) — Goodbye, Twitter. Hello, X.
Elon Musk has unveiled a brand new “X” emblem to switch Twitter’s well-known blue chook as he follows by means of with a significant rebranding of the social media platform he purchased for $44 billion final 12 months.
The X began showing on the high of the desktop model of Twitter on Monday, however the chook was nonetheless dominant throughout the smartphone app. In response to questions on what tweets could be referred to as when the rebranding is finished, Musk stated they’d be referred to as Xs.
It’s yet one more change that Musk has made since buying Twitter that has alienated customers and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging website weak to new threats, together with rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads that straight targets Twitter customers.
Musk had requested followers for emblem concepts and selected one, which he described as minimalist Art Deco, saying it “certainly will be refined.” He changed his personal Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted an image of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.
The X.com internet area now redirects customers to Twitter.com, Musk stated.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, but I think it’s a very selfish decision,” stated Hannah Thoreson of Baltimore, Maryland, who’s used Twitter since 2009 for work and private posts.
“There are so many small businesses and so many nonprofits and so many government agencies and things like that all around the world that have relied on Twitter for many years to push their message and reach people,” she stated. “And they all have the Twitter icon on everything from their website to their business cards.”
Changing all this prices money and time, she added, to not point out the confusion that comes with a beforehand unknown model identify.
“I mean, do you want to get rid of the Coca-Cola brand if you’re Coca-Cola? Why would you do that?” stated Thoreson, who now primarily makes use of Mastodon.
Musk, CEO of Tesla, has lengthy been fascinated with the letter and had already renamed Twitter’s company identify to X Corp. after he purchased it in October.
The billionaire can be CEO of rocket firm Space Exploration Technologies Corp., generally referred to as SpaceX. And he began a synthetic intelligence firm this month referred to as xAI to compete with ChatGPT. In 1999, he based a startup referred to as X.com, a web-based monetary companies firm now referred to as PayPal.
He additionally calls certainly one of his sons, whose mom is singer Grimes, “X.” The youngster’s precise identify is a group of letters and symbols.
Musk’s Twitter buy and rebranding are a part of his technique to create what he’s dubbed an “ everything app ” just like China’s WeChat, which mixes video chats, messaging, streaming and funds. Musk has made numerous drastic modifications since taking up Twitter, together with a shift to specializing in paid subscriptions, however he doesn’t all the time comply with by means of on his attention-grabbing new coverage pronouncements.
Linda Yaccarino, the longtime NBC Universal govt Musk tapped to be Twitter CEO in May, posted the brand new emblem and weighed in on the change, writing on Twitter that X could be “the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”
Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg referred to as the rebranding “the end of an era.”
“Twitter’s rebrand is a reminder that Elon Musk, not Threads or any other app, is and has always been the most likely ‘Twitter killer,’” she stated.
It’s clear, Enberg stated, that the Twitter of the previous 17 years is gone.
“Musk supporters will likely celebrate the rebrand, but it’s a gloomy day for many Twitter users and advertisers,” she stated. “Even so, Twitter’s corporate brand is already heavily intertwined with Musk’s personal brand, with or without the name X, and much of Twitter’s established brand equity has already been lost among users and advertisers.”
But Paolo Pescatore, a tech and media analyst and founding father of PP Foresight, stated the change may very well be a good suggestion.
“People are now getting increasingly frustrated with a slew of apps, so driving usage all towards one destination will increase engagement and ultimately make it easier for them,” he stated.
Others predicted the brand new identify will confuse a lot of Twitter’s viewers, which has already been souring on the social media platform following Musk’s different modifications, together with limiting the variety of tweets customers can learn every day. The new threshold is a part of an $8-per-month subscription service Musk rolled out earlier this 12 months in an try to spice up Twitter income.
Wiping out Twitter’s model identify recognition that was constructed up over 15 years is an “extremely risky move,” as a result of it means Musk is ”primarily beginning over whereas its competitors is afoot,” stated Mike Proulx, a analysis director at world market analysis firm Forrester.
Twitter customers identified that few individuals seek advice from Alphabet, Google’s guardian firm since 2015. Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, however its assortment of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook — nonetheless retain their very own manufacturers and logos.
But Pescatore stated it may be the appropriate time for the sweeping rebranding that Musk appears to take into account.
“The removal of Twitter from existence will be difficult for many users to understand,” Pescatore stated. However, “maybe it is time for something new in light of the negative sentiment surrounding the company. A new start over this challenging period of major disruption and appeal to new audiences.”
___
AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California and Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this story.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”