On the 24th local time, Twitter owner Musk officially put on a new logo for social media Twitter, replacing Twitter’s original classic blue bird with "X". On the same day, Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Twitter, issued a message announcing that the Twitter logo was officially changed to X.
Musk also put a video on his Twitter account, and the pattern in the video changed from Twitter’s original classic blue bird to "X". Musk also posted that X.com’s website has pointed to twitter.com. In addition, he also released a picture of the new icon "X" being projected on the Twitter headquarters building, with the caption "This is our headquarters tonight".
Some media concluded that changing Twitter to "X" was a bad joke, but it also highlighted Musk’s ambition to build his "universal application". Musk once said that the acquisition of Twitter is to accelerate the creation of the universal application "X" and that "the acquisition of Twitter can accelerate this process for three to five years".
It is reported that as early as April this year, it was reported that the Twitter company held by Musk was merged into its newly established company X Corp, and Twitter also announced to its business customers that Twitter would be renamed "X Corp", which means Twitter no longer exists as an independent company. In xAI official website, an artificial intelligence company founded by Musk, Twitter is also called "X". According to reports, Musk registered and established two new companies in Nevada on March 9: X Holdings Corp and X Corp The former is the parent company of the latter. On March 15th, Musk applied to merge his X Holdings I with X Holdings Corp and Twitter with X Corp.
Re-branding or Dangerous Action?
Experts say this move may further alienate the original users.
In fact, since Musk acquired Twitter, this world-renowned social media company has undergone tremendous changes, from internal layoffs, restrictions on speech, and suspension of cooperation by advertisers. It is reported that Musk said earlier this month that the advertising revenue of the platform has been reduced by nearly half with the withdrawal of many large advertisers. Data from consulting firm Brand Finance shows that the brand value of the company has dropped by 32% compared with last year, mainly due to Musk’s "radical strategy".
Yanhui Zhao, a professor of marketing in university of nebraska at omaha, USA, believes that when an enterprise is in trouble or wants to change its direction, brand remodeling can play a positive role. After studying 215 listed companies that have been rebranded, he found that half of them have achieved certain results. "This means that Musk’s move may be timely." He added that Musk hopes to turn Twitter into a "universal application" that can socialize, trade, take taxis and book hotels. Linda also explained in the social platform that the "X" platform (Twitter) will become a platform that can deliver everything. According to Yanhui Zhao, this is a very important rebranding for Twitter.
However, according to Mike Proulx, a research expert at Forrester, a research consultancy, Musk still has a long way to go to achieve the above goals. "It takes time, money and manpower, which the company doesn’t have now." Mike also said that this move may further alienate Twitter’s original user base. In addition, considering the trust of Twitter users in the platform and financial supervision issues, many insiders believe that Musk’s wish is likely to fail.
Shuba Srinivasan, a marketing professor at Boston University, warned that this was a dangerous move. "When a company is already in chaos, the possibility of success will be reduced." She added that such a move is even more dangerous, especially when other social media companies are competing with it.
It is reported that another social media giant, Meta, has previously launched the application Threads and directly targeted Twitter. According to a survey data in May this year, a quarter of Twitter users said in the survey that they don’t expect to use the platform for one year. According to the report, changing Twitter to "X" also made users who had previously held a wait-and-see attitude towards Twitter leave the social platform more simply.
Jean-Pierre Dube, a professor of marketing at the University of Chicago, thinks it’s strange to change Twitter’s classic blue bird logo to "X". "Why do you choose to gain a brand with great popularity, and then completely ‘ Make a makeover ’ And? In the short term, this is hard to understand. " In Dube’s view, it is difficult to judge whether rebranding can save Twitter. "I think leadership is the most important thing."
Why does Musk love "X"?
"X.com" once helped him earn the "first bucket of gold"
Bobby Allyn, a journalist who specializes in science and technology, believes that Musk is trying to promote the "X" symbol on the surface, but in fact, it is only through publicity on social media, and the platform has not made substantial changes. "Joshua White, a professor of finance, talked to me about this issue. He thought that the name change seemed to attract people’s attention, but in fact it was of little commercial value. He described it as ‘ Coke changes its traditional packaging, but does not change any formula ’ " .
Drew Benvie, CEO of Battenhall, a social media consulting company, analyzed that it is better to say that Musk wants to develop around his own "Musk Empire" than to reshape Twitter, and the "X" series companies will obviously work more closely together.
According to reports, Musk once said that "I like the letter &lsquo very much; X’” Its passion for the letter "X" dates back more than 20 years. In 1999, Musk founded an Internet financial service company named "X.com", which was later transformed into "PayPal". In 2002, PayPal was sold to "eBay" for $1.5 billion, and Musk also earned nearly $180 million from it, which enabled him to have enough financial resources to invest in Tesla and established his space exploration company SpaceX in 2002. In 2016, Musk established Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company. It is reported that in addition to the newly merged Twitter, SpaceX and Neuralink now belong to X Corp.
Bob said that he didn’t know why Musk liked the letter "X" so much. However, according to his speculation, Musk’s feelings for "X" may be out of some nostalgic feelings. "After all ‘ X.com’ Let him earn ‘ The first bucket of gold ’ 。”
Red Star journalist Li Jinrui
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