Soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and all the birds, says Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, revealed his plans for a significant rebranding of the social media company. Acknowledging that advertisers have been slow to return, he signaled his intention to take the platform in a new direction. As part of this change, the well-known blue bird logo is now all set to be replaced by an X.
Musk recently admitted that advertising revenue had significantly declined, accounting for nearly half its previous value. This and the burden of heavy debt resulted in negative cash flow for Twitter.
On Sunday, the billionaire Musk sought input from his millions of followers on whether they would prefer changing the site’s color scheme, transitioning from blue to black. He shared a picture of a stylized X set against a black, outer space-themed background and declared that the Twitter brand and all the bird-related imagery would gradually be phased out.
Late Sunday afternoon, Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, tweeted about the rare opportunity to make another significant impression in business. She emphasized Twitter’s past impact on communication and expressed her belief that the rebranded X would take it even further, transforming the global town square.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”
Alienating Twitter’s devoted user base?
According to Mike Proulx, the research director at Forrester, the rebranding move might further alienate Twitter’s original and once devoted user base. While some argue that it means letting go of an iconic brand, others see it as a signal of a new era for the platform, targeting a different user base.
“On the one hand, you can argue that he would be getting rid of an iconic brand. On the other hand, he is signaling it is a new day for what was once Twitter and that the company is heading in a different direction with a different user base.”
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter underwent significant changes since he acquired the company in October. It was rebranded as X Corp, reflecting Musk’s ambition to create a “super app” akin to China’s WeChat. Additionally, in April, the legacy blue bird logo was temporarily replaced with Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu dog, contributing to a surge in the cryptocurrency’s market value.
The company faced criticism from users and marketing professionals when Musk announced earlier that Twitter would limit the number of tweets various accounts could read daily. This move aided Meta platforms-owned rival service Threads, which rapidly reached 100 million sign-ups within five days of its July 5 launch.
