RIP, blue bird. After more than 15 years of good – and mostly loyal – service, Twitter has begun its name change to become “X”putting away its famous logo, with a double-barred X replacing the famous volatile. And if Elon Musk had long warned of this metamorphosis which must, in the long term, make the network a “super-application” à la WeChatno one is really convinced.
But what is this logo?
Elon Musk has been obsessed with the mathematical symbol X for a long time (from the online bank Musk founded in 1999 that later became the online payment service PayPal, to SpaceX to his son X Æ A-12).
This weekend, the billionaire launched a call for contributions, promising to change the logo immediately if he received a good proposal. User Sawyer Merritt suggested a bright, double-barred “X” that appears to be derived from the lowercase letter “x” in Monotype’s Special alphabets 4 font. And evokes more a Las Vegas nightclub or an energy drink than a social network.
At present, it is not known whether Elon Musk has obtained the necessary rights. As Business Insider points out, an X logo linked to “social networking services” already belongs to… Meta, which launched recently Threads to compete with Twitter.
No uniformity on the platform
With such a hasty change, the network’s graphic charter was on the street on Monday. On the Web versions (desktop and mobile), Twitter has become X, with the new logo. By contrast, most Android and iOS app users are still entitled to the blue bird, and remnants of the old terminology can be found all over the place. Musk said a “tweet” would soon be called an “x,” a risky move as “tweet” has become a commonly used noun and verb.
Bad domain name forwarding
If Elon Musk is the owner of the domain name X.commany users still fall on a pub page for canapes instead of being redirected to twitter.com. The problem seems to come from certain DNS directories which have not yet carried out the necessary update.
Logo removal halted by San Francisco police
Workers began dismantling the letters of the “Twitter” logo on the facade of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday morning, but the city’s police intervened and interrupted them. According to SF Chronicle, the authorities are trying to determine if the company needs a permit for this work. In the meantime, there are two letters left, “ER”… as well as the blue bird.
A very complicated “pivot” to perform
Elon Musk’s No. 1 Cheerleader, Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, went on with her ultra-optimistic messages: “X is the future state of limitless interactivity – centered on audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities (…) Powered by AI, X will connect us in ways we are only just beginning to imagine. »
This salad of meaningless words does not change the reality: the platform’s advertising revenues have fallen by 50% since the takeover of Elon Musk. With an unanswered question for the moment: if the company is struggling to attract advertisers, how will it succeed in convincing users to trust it for financial transactions, when there is no shortage of established and secure services (Paypal, Venmo, Zelle, Apple/Google Pay). Especially with a Twitter/X infrastructure that always seems on the verge of breaking down as Elon Musk aggressively cuts spending and lays people off.
Doubtful marketing experts
“A name change can signal a strategic shift, modernize a brand, or help out of an image crisis,” says Vanitha Swaminathan, a marketing professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “In the case of Twitter, it’s all three. This could offer “a new start” to the social network, believes the academic, “but it must be followed by specific measures that show that something is indeed happening”.
“This change is a monumental marketing mistake,” retorted entrepreneur Sam Kelly on Twitter. “Twitter is an iconic global brand with immense value. A whole terminology has been created around it”, such as the verb tweeter, passed into everyday language, “which cannot be replicated with ”X””.
Simon Kemp, CEO of digital consultancy Kepios, said he was skeptical of Twitter’s ability to become a super-app, which would require massive investment along the way. “Given the way Mr. Musk has treated Twitter employees since his acquisition” of the social network, “I don’t imagine that many developers will rush” to join the company and “create” new applications, “unless Mr. Musk can offer exceptional incentives”, which “will be even more difficult given the company’s current indebtedness. »