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- Elon Musk Reveals Why He’s Rebranding Twitter As X — While Police Interfere With Company’s Sign Removal -TGN
Elon Musk Reveals Why He’s Rebranding Twitter As X — While Police Interfere With Company’s Sign Removal -TGN
Elon Musk has said the Twitter name “doesn’t make sense” as he turns the platform into an “everything app” called X.
The richest man in the world has not been shy about putting his own stamp on the site he bought for $44bn (£38bn) last October. and has now embarked on the most dramatic change in its 16-year history.
Musk spent the weekend teasing an impending reinvention and unveiled a new name and logo yesterday.
His desire to make sweeping changes to such a recognizable social media brand caused confusion, but the SpaceX And Tesla owner defended the move in a late-night tweet.
“The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140-character messages going back and forth — like birds tweeting — but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video,” he said.
“In the coming months, we will add expanded communications and the ability to control your entire financial world.
“The Twitter name makes no sense in that context, so we have to say goodbye to the bird.”
Previously, Musk had stated that tweets are now known as x’s.
What is “the everything app”?
Musk has spoken at length about his desire to turn Twitter into an “everything app” modeled after China’s WeChat.
It combines features like messaging, payments, a marketplace, and public posts in one place.
Musk said he bought Twitter “as an accelerator for X,” a letter with clear sentimental value to him.
It’s not only part of his rocket company’s name, but also one of his children; an artificial intelligence start-up he launched earlier this year; and an online bank he co-founded in 1999 that later became PayPal.
Experts have suggested that the Twitter change is as much about linking it to Musk’s personal brand as anything else.
Rapid changes at headquarters
The rebranding can be found not only on Twitter’s site and app, but also at its headquarters in San Francisco, where Musk beamed the new logo onto the building.
Workers were seen removing the Twitter sign from the outside on Monday, but were briefly held up by police.
Witnesses said officers told them that Musk’s company had not obtained a permit to have the crane on site, but the delay was later attributed to a “misunderstanding.”
Local police told The San Francisco Standard: “At approximately 12:39 p.m., officers assigned to Tenderloin Station in the 10th and Market Street area responded to a report of a possible unauthorized street closure.
“Agents were able to determine that no crime had been committed and that this incident was not a police case.”
Remaining references to Twitter and the iconic logo have also reportedly been removed from the building.
A blue bird statue was one of the items auctioned earlier this year while Musk tried to cut costs, already have laid off thousands of employees.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that X logos were projected in the building’s cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed for words with X in them — including “eXposure” and “s3Xy.”
Musk, who is 52, has a history of cracking jokes refer to Internet memes about sex and drugs.
Another rival shows up?
When Twitter’s rebranding kicked off, TikTok revealed that it added the ability for users to post text updates.
The Chinese-owned app is best known for short videos, but has rather branched out into photo sharing.
The text option gives people “another way to express themselves,” according to the company.
It represents yet another direct rival to X, already fending off competition from the likes of Metas Wiresthat became the fastest growing app in history earlier this month.
Some users and advertisers have looked elsewhere due to Musk’s many changes, including lock verification checkmarks behind a paywallrestoring banned accounts like that of Andrew TateAnd apply read limits.
His loose stance on moderation has contributed to Twitter losing nearly half of its ad revenue, leaving the company unprofitable and heavily in debt.