By: Nick Gambino
X gonna give it to ya or at least that’s what Elon Musk is hoping. The billionaire tech mogul has been shaking things up over at Twitter since acquiring the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022. Now he’s literally shaken the identity of the thing and has rebranded it as “X.”
Musk has gone as far as removing the famous and universally recognizable blue bird logo, replacing it with, you guessed it, an X logo. The guy has been super into X’s stretching as far back as his time at PayPal in 2000 when he tried to change the company name to the antepenultimate letter of the alphabet. Then there’s the Tesla Model X and SpaceX.
The decision to abruptly change the name and logo of the company has been controversial as are a lot of the decisions he makes. Many on the social media platform have been on a non-stop roast since the announcement with a lot of their punchlines likening it to porn site Xvideos.
The main issue is the swift and complete wipeout of a brand that has been a part of the lexicon since its inception 17 years ago. Even when Facebook became Meta, they kept the social media platform as “Facebook.” Same with Google when it became Alphabet. They kept their search engine as “Google.”
There’s something to say about this decision feeling a lot like Musk just woke up one day, had a cup of coffee and then decimated the Twitter brand on a whim. Listen, it’s above my pay grade. Maybe Elon Musk has better foresight than me. In fact, I’d guarantee it. But it just seems rash from my objective perch.
Musk has said he’s looking to make X a lot more than what Twitter has been. He’s pointed out that the platform is limited and isn’t even fulfilling the spirit of its name as originally designed. When Twitter first launched and for many years you could only tweet out 140-character text-based posts. Now you can do photos, videos and long-as-hell text posts.
“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities,” Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X Corp. said in a tweet (or whatever it’s called).
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 23, 2023
Here’s my only wish for the new X app, please call a direct message a “DMX.”
