Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October last year for a modest $44 billion, he has laid off approximately 80% of his employees and introduced controversial changes to the platform, which have caused frustration among users.
In 2022, we’ve compiled some of these changes and presented a look back at this controversial year for Twitter.
About a month ago, he announced limits on the number of posts and direct messages on the platform, mainly targeting users without the blue verification badge.
However, this time, after a mysterious series of tweets on Sunday night, Musk revealed on his own social media account that Twitter is undergoing a rebranding process and is now called “X.” He then introduced the new logo, featuring a black and white “X” instead of the old blue bird.
Reasons and motivations behind Twitter's rebranding
Elon Musk has been talking about his intention to create what he luxembourg whatsapp data calls a “full-featured app” for some time now. When he acquired Twitter, he tweeted (can we still say “tweeted” for this period?) from his account: “Buying Twitter will accelerate the creation of X, the full-featured app.”
He was proposing something similar to China's WeChat, where users not only find entertainment but also shop and conduct other financial transactions.
According to Walter Isaacson, who was already writing Elon Musk's biography before the Twitter acquisition, Musk sent him a message saying, "I'm so excited to finally implement X.com as it should be, using Twitter as an accelerant!"
But why replace the brand name? Why remove the bird logo?
Isaacson also recalled that in the early 2000s, Musk had already planned to use the “X.com” brand for what later became PayPal, but was unable to convince his investors at the time.
However, Musk has doubled down on his mysterious desire to use the letter “X” in one of his trademarks. In 2002, he named his aerospace company SpaceX.
As usual, Musk clarified this for Twitter users (now known as “X”):
“Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure free speech and as an accelerator for X, the full app. This is not just a simple name change of the company, but doing the same thing.
The name Twitter made sense when it was just 140-character messages going back and forth — like birds tweeting — but now you can post almost anything, including hours of video.
In the coming months, we’ll be adding comprehensive communications and the ability to manage your entire financial world. The name Twitter doesn’t make sense in this context, so we should say goodbye to the bird.”
Linda Yaccarino, the recently hired CEO of Twitter (now X), added: “X is the future state of limitless interactivity — centered around audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us in ways we’re only beginning to imagine.”