On Sunday morning, Twitter users in India were greeted by a cryptic tweet from Elon Musk. As the microblogging service was about to undergo a makeover, the billionaire cautioned users to get ready to bid farewell to the beloved Twitter logo and, gradually, “all the birds.” Even if such a move was unexpected, rumours of Musk considering a full rebranding of Twitter had been circulating on the internet for quite some time. The transition of Twitter to X has already started, and the display name ‘X’ is no longer visible on the social media platform’s official handle. The famous blue bird logo in the profile photo has also been replaced by X, and the bio for the handle has also been changed.
Musk hopes that with X, he can create a super app that can do a lot more than just be a social network platform for interactions. So, what is going on at Twitter, and why is Musk renaming it X? Here’s the complete story in five points.
The rebranding of Twitter and Musk’s announcement:
In a tweet on Sunday, Musk said of Twitter’s rebranding, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” In another tweet, he said that if they can find a nice enough logo, it will go up soon. It appears that the team did identify a suitable logo, as Musk posted a video of the X logo to his Twitter profile. He afterwards altered his profile photo to show the logo. Twitter CEO Yaccarino also posted a photo of the logo with the caption, “X is here! Let’s get started.”
X.com is being redirected to Twitter:
Musk also stated in a separate tweet that the domain X.com will now route users to Twitter. And, certainly, typing X.com into your web browser will bring you the Twitter website. This makes us question whether Twitter.com will be phased out and replaced by X.com in the future. The Bluebird is no longer associated with Twitter’s official handle. The X logo has replaced the bird, and the display name of the handle also states X. The bio asks, ‘What’s going on?’
The X Corp Story:
In April of this year, a document filed in a California court revealed that Twitter no longer exists as a separate corporation. The company had been absorbed by X Corp. “Twitter Inc. was absorbed by X Corp. and is no longer in existence. X Corp. is a privately held corporation incorporated in Nevada and headquartered in San Francisco, California,” according to the paper. Musk is the president of both the business and its parent company, X Holdings Corp, which was also established in March. The merger was officially announced on March 15.
Nostalgic association:
Musk is said to have a sentimental attachment to the domain name X.com. According to an Insider story, Musk founded X.com, an internet banking startup, in 1990. To become PayPal, the company was eventually combined with Confinity, a financial venture co-founded by Peter Thiel. Musk was fired by the board of directors while on vacation in Australia, despite the fact that he was the CEO of the just-established PayPal.Thiel was appointed as the new CEO. According to Forbes, Musk was fired because he instigated a major feud among PayPal’s co-founders over the decision to switch their servers from the Unix operating system to Microsoft’s Windows.
Subtle cues along the road:
Musk has repeatedly mentioned his goal to create an ‘everything’ app, X, that can serve as a go-to app for the user’s numerous demands. He wrote on Twitter shortly after purchasing Twitter, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
According to a New York Times report from October 2022, Musk disclosed plans for a new product named X, with the goal of having 104 million subscribers by 2028. According to other sources, Musk previously stated that he was influenced by China’s WeChat. Musk reportedly claimed in May that WeChat could handle everything and combined apps like Twitter, PayPal, and a “bunch of things” into one. “It’s a really excellent app, and we don’t have anything like that outside of China,” he continued. Musk praised a Tesla investor’s plan in 2020 to form a holding company called X for his multiple projects.