Twitter's 'X' Rebrand Is Elon Musk's Most Desperate Gimmick Yet (2024)

FAQs

Was rebranding Twitter a good idea? ›

Was Twitter's Rebrand a Success? While the long-term effects of the Twitter/X rebrand have yet to be seen, so far, it has cost the company billions, been roundly criticised by experts and proven unpopular with users.

By May 8, the Index score had risen to -0.9, the highest since January 2022. Despite Musk's $44 billion investment and the rebranding to X, our poll indicates that a year later, half of Americans still refer to the platform as Twitter (49%), a figure that rises to 55% among daily X users.

Users questioned the need for the new name and felt disconnected from the platform they had grown accustomed to. Moreover, the vague messaging surrounding the rebrand left many scratching their heads, failing to communicate a clear value proposition.

The rebrand was announced last summer to, as Musk posted then, both “ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.

But what are the disadvantages of rebranding? Rebranding can also lead to significant risks such as alienating existing customers, incurring high costs, and potentially diluting the brand's original message or values.

In some cases, that can be a beneficial thing, but it usually has to be for a very good reason. If a company rebrands itself because of the ever-shifting whims of the head authority, it's probably not a great idea. Your brand is an icon. It is how people have grown to know your business.

People are very attached to the blue bird. They feel the rebrand was unnecessary, and stripped Twitter of its personality. It looks like most folks see this as more of an Elon Musk ego-trip than something that's actually helpful for Twitter users.

2: The U.S. has more X users than any other country.

With 109.2 million active users (nearly a third of the population), X is one of the most popular media platforms in America. Japan and India are the platform's second and third biggest users as of April 2024, with 69.3 and 25.5 million users, respectively.

“App intelligence provider Sensor Tower, estimated that X's average daily active users worldwide grew 2% from July to August 2024 [while] website traffic provider Similarweb reported that X is seeing daily and weekly fluctuations in engagement that are within the normal range across the web and mobile apps.”

The truth is that Twitter lost around 32 million users since the takeover but still has managed to generate $4.4 billion in 2022. Let's dive in to what you need to know about Twitter after the X rebranding.

Why did everyone quit Twitter? ›

But its future looks more turbulent than at any point since Elon Musk took over three weeks ago, as a huge number of workers decided to quit rather than agree to the billionaire's loyalty pledge, which involved committing to a “hard core” work routine to grow the platform.

In its latest social network usage forecast, Insider Intelligence expects monthly Twitter users worldwide to drop nearly 4% in 2023 and another 5% in 2024. Our base assumption for this forecast is that technical issues and offensive content will drive away users.

Fidelity, which owns a stake in X Holdings, said in a disclosure obtained by Axios that it had marked down the value of its shares by 71.5% since Musk's purchase. Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and renamed the platform X in July 2023. Fidelity's estimate would place the value of X at about $12.5bn.

X is a service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People post posts, which may contain photos, videos, links, and text. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on X search.

On May 17, 2024, the URL was officially changed from twitter.com to x.com. On July 17, 2024, Musk posted that the headquarters of X would be moved from San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

By being active on Twitter, you get to keep an eye on your biggest competitors and see what they're up to. Then, you can use this information to come up with something original and unique for your brand. As a result, you're staying competitive and making sure you don't just blend in with the rest.

Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.

A rebranding is risky but can lead to great results

But when there's an explicit strategy behind your rebranding — to reach new customers, stand out in a sea of sameness, reflect your brand's growth, or modernize in changing times — it can lead to tremendous results.

Elon Musk initiated the acquisition of Twitter, Inc. on April 14, 2022, and completed it on October 28, 2022. His goal was to transform Twitter into X, an all-encompassing app inspired by WeChat.