Twitter rebrand - does X hit the spot?

When Twitter launched in 2006, its logo was a sweet, timid but inquisitive looking little bird called Larry. Larry looked friendly, modest, unassuming, keen to help, even - quite a nice sort of feeling for a new launch of a social media platform. Since then, Larry evolved from his first form into to a cheeky-little-fella version, then lost his smile and eventually his quiff in a more serious but still positive eventual incarnation. Now Elon Musk is here, and having wreaked havoc on the platform his next step is to bring poor Larry into extinction.

Looking at the logo timeline, the X logo is ugly and abrasive in comparison to those that prevailed. One could argue that’s very on-brand but I doubt that is what Musk is going for. ‘Cool’ is probably what he’s after, but to me it looks like a picture hasn’t loaded properly and that graphic is there to inform me as much. It also looks like it could be a beer coaster from a lap dancing bar.

It’s a dreadful name for a brand, and it’s not gone down well, but Musk likes ‘X’. He has a company called SpaceX, and his son’s name is X ? A-12, apparently. I guess he was inspired by a number plate.

But it all started out so nicely...

In the late noughties, a work friend of mine called JB told me about this amazing new platform, Twitter. I’d heard about it, but it sounded a bit weird to me. At that time my social interactions online were mainly sport and music-based, on myspace (I know, that dates me!) and football chat forums, and I didn’t like the idea of a stream of posts from loads of randoms.

What JB liked was that he could post a question on there (he’s a bit of a data guru so it would probably have been data or tech related) and because he followed people who shared the same interests, he could tag them in posts to ask them directly, or just pop a Tweet out there, and soon get back answers, links to articles, and all the information he needed. It was quick, and information rich and people were helpful, friendly, and nice.

I tried and liked Twitter; it became a better, quicker way of getting sports updates and I could get alerts on gigs and news on my favourite bands. Along with most of the rest of the world I eventually stopped using myspace and the chat rooms and happily used Twitter and started dabbling in Facebook as well.

Over time, more people started enjoying it, and that little bird grew fatter and happier. Tweets weren’t limited to 140 characters any more, Ad revenues started rolling in, more “fun” came onto the platform in the form of Vines (6 second video clips), and celebrities used it in their droves, to plug and grow their brands and wallets - users didn’t mind as they were entertained, and enjoyed seeing their idols posts in real time, straight from the horse’s mouth (or their Social Media/PR Managers’).

Vines evolved into videos, but a cloud that had been on the horizon a while was starting to rain down on the platform. Twitter became a haven for online trolls and their abuse. Nothing was out of bounds - fake news, conspiracy theories, death threats, homophobia, sexism, racism, you name it. It got ugly.

As the Twitter logo lost its cheeriness, and a bit of weight, it got more serious, and its owners did the same - banning users, suspending others, and attempting to stem the flow of hate and nastiness that was prevalent on the platform. It wasn’t fixed but was getting better. But another storm was on the way in the form of Elon Musk, and we all know how that went.

Musk took a slightly troubled brand and platform, and instead of giving it a makeover, made it incredibly ugly and stamped it into the ground in less than a year. As he wipes little blue feathers off the bottom of his boots, he tells us what plans he has for Twitter’s replacement, X.

Musk has ambition, he wants to transform the platform from the social media equivalent of a moody Wetherspoons into a “global town square” super-app, changing it into a more of a video platform, with features including e-commerce, food takeaway ordering, and a holistic banking system, with an aim to take over half the global financial transactions. This immediately has me picturing Musk in a white suit, on a leather swivel chair, turning slowly towards me whilst stroking an overly fluffy white cat.

Musk wants to include dating as well. Hmmm, I can imagine it now... “incel conspiracy theorist seeks like-minded right wing paranoid nutjob for trolling, threats, and vitriol. GSH. No timewasters”. Lovely.

X.com (please ensure you don’t hit that X too many times!) still redirects to Twitter.com, and the icon on my phone is still the soon-to-be-no-more Larry. Tweets will become Xs, Tweeters will be Xers, and he’s changing followers to viewers. So, a lot of changes to follow this somewhat unpopular rebrand.

Could the rebrand be as bad as when Netflix launched its streaming service (having been an online DVD rental firm before) as Qwikster before reversing the decision? Brand counts for a lot. Twitter’s brand values are very low, and unless the new offerings from X push our buttons, I’m not sure that the name and logo change is going to be enough. There has already been a great deal of debate about the logo, which some are accusing is a rip-off of Twitter user Kxlider’s avatar, and others are just saying is just rather blunt and dull.

Competition is another massive barrier to X’s success. TikTok has announced they will be adding text posts as an option, with a limit of 1,000 characters, which could see it becoming a mixture of news and blogging on top of the video content. This will provide even more competition to X and possibly stunt its ambitious growth. Twitter’s non-evil twin Threads is enjoying fantastic early success, Insta is growing and counter-balancing Facebook’s decline. Snap has found its happy niche and is doing fine.

The competition is such that there are enough other places out there for Twitter/X not to exist. Some people will still love it and want to stay there, but user numbers have dropped by about 10% this year and ad revenues are still down, too. Musk will need to do a lot to turn this tide and make it the behemoth he wants it to become. Personally, I don’t think he has the willingness to change the toxicity of the place, or to reverse his awful rebranding decision and those decisions could cost him dearly, as the competition is fierce, and ready to welcome new users. Threads and TikTok are a testament to that. Adding videos, dating, and banking might not be enough.

Good luck, Elon. You might need it.