Elon Musk, since acquiring Twitter for US$44 billion (approximately Rs. 3,59,100 crore), has been introducing changes and updates to the microblogging site. The latest twist is a complete change of his brand name and logo from Twitter to X. The billionaire too announced in a tweet that the X.com domain now redirects users to Twitter. From monetizing Twitter through premium subscriptions to paid verification badges, the changes Musk has made to the company speak volumes for how he intends to lead the platform and make it one of his X group of companies.
When Musk first acquired Twitter last October, he made his plans for the microblogging site clear. Tesla’s CEO also tweeted at the time that “Buying Twitter is an accelerator to the creation of X, the app of everything.” This “everything app”, as he explained it, would be a super full-featured app like WeChat that can be used for a variety of things including booking travel, sending money and payments, as well as facilitating day-to-day communications.
Now, Musk has really changed Twitter to X, when it comes to the name, domain, and even its logo. However, it’s still not a super app. On Sunday, July 23, he posted about changing Twitter’s logo to an X. Over the next few hours, he did not only that, but also done x.com redirects users to the Twitter home page.
Elon Musk and his love for ‘X’
The rebranding to X is recent, but Musk’s love of that alphabet isn’t so random. In fact, it’s been going on for years. The idea for X first came to mind in 1999, when the billionaire introduced x.com as a financial platform, which later became Paypal after it merged with software company Confinity in 2000. According to a Time article, Musk was ousted from his role as CEO of Paypal in 2000, and was later sold to eBay in a $1.5 billion deal.
Although Musk was hurt by this, he bought x.com back from PayPal in July 2017, explaining which “has great sentimental value”. Later that month, Musk put x.com back online and began redirecting visitors to The Boring Company in December 2017.
Since acquiring Twitter, Musk has been determined to put his plans for X – his “app for everything” – into action. In his conversation with Ron Baron, the new head of Twitter announced his ambition to make Twitter “the world’s most valuable financial institution” by April 2023.
In addition to Twitter, Musk also used the letter X in the name of his space exploration company, SpaceX; its latest AI initiative called xAI; and the first SUV mode released by his company Tesla under the name of Model X.
Changes to Twitter since the acquisition of Elon Musk
Twitter, under Musk’s leadership, has gone through several changes, starting with the termination of its then-CEO, Parag Agrawal, and other top executives. In the following months, many banned celebrity accounts were allowed to return to the platform.
A month after his multibillion-dollar purchase, Musk began trying to monetize Twitter with the reinvention of Twitter Blue. The company has also seen a series of job cuts and layoffs at several offices, including the layoff of the entire AI Ethics team.
Blue ticks for officially verified accounts, as well as subscriber accounts, started appearing in November. However, the marks on the paid accounts disappeared within a few days. Musk also introduced different colored marks, based on the ownership status of the accounts, in order to recognize news outlets.
With all these changes, Twitter’s ad revenue has dropped by nearly 50%. Musk tried to keep users engaged by introducing several new features including ive tweeting, community notes and Twitter Blue for Business. To keep the business on track, Musk recently announced his resignation as CEO, but he’s still heavily involved, promoting new features like view counts and the ability to upload long-form videos.
The next big thing came in April 2023, when Musk announced Twitter’s merger with X Corp. In May of this year, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of Twitter. He indicated that he will delegate authority to her and step aside to focus on his other businesses.
A Look at the Bluebird’s Twitter Name and Story
Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. Previously, Twitter was planned to have different names like Smssy and Twttr, according to CreativeBloq. Twitter’s first official logo was just its name written in light blue in sheriffless shapes and was designed by Linda Gavin.
Twitter’s relationship with a bluebird began shortly after its launch. It was created by Simon Oxley, a British graphic designer. According to an NYT article, he put the design up for sale on iStock in 2006 and was purchased by Twitter for about $15. The name Larry was named after basketball star and Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.
The design changed three times, in 2009, 2010 and 2012. The current bluebird design was created by Doug Bowman, former creative director of the company, according to whom “Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter”.
In 2023, new owner Musk changed not only the logo, but also the Twitter name and domain. The company will now be known as X, with an X logo. tweet by Paris Marx, the new logo was created by an in-house designer, using the monotype font. Another Twitter user also came forward to take over credit into the design, revealing the story behind how it all began.