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Elon Musk said on Sunday that he plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the famous blue bird, marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year.
In a series of posts on his Twitter account starting just after 12 a.m. ET, Twitter’s owner said that he’s looking to make the change worldwide as soon as Monday. “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote on his account.
A slew of changes at Twitter
The change isn’t surprising given Musk’s long history with the name “X,” says Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. The billionaire Tesla CEO tweeted last October that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Musk’s rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is commonly known as SpaceX. In 1999, Musk founded a startup called X.com, an online financial services company now known as PayPal.
“Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X,” Musk tweeted Sunday. Hours later on Sunday, Linda Yaccarino, the longtime NBC Universal executive Musk appointed as Twitter CEO in May, weighed in on the move.
It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 23, 2023
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” she wrote on her Twitter account. “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.” Yaccarino wrote on Twitter that X would be “the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.” But the change on Twitter was met with skepticism on the social media platform.
The change will be very confusing to a huge chunk of the Twitter’s audience, which has been already souring on the social platform given a slew of other major changes Musk has made, Adamson said.
According to the design website Creative Bloq, Twitter, which was established in 2006 and whose name is a play on the sound of birds chirping, has used avian branding since its inception. At that time, the firm purchased a stock symbol of a light blue bird for $15.