In an astonishing move Sunday, serial founder Elon Musk announced the renaming of his recently acquired social media company from Twitter to a simple, ambiguous X. Musk, a well-known technopreneur in the automobile, aerospace, neuroscience, and renewable energy industries, expanded his portfolio when he purchased the “bluebird” app for $44 billion on October 27, 2022. Now, barely nine months after that takeover, the Tesla boss is bringing alive an old dream of an X-themed one-all app by transforming the Twitter brand. What’s he doing, why is he doing it, and what are the possible consequences? Find out in this news article.

The How, What, and Why of Elon’s App X

Two things about Elon Musk. First is that he has an affinity for the letter X and second, he has had a long-coming dream of building an all-in-one payment application with the same name. For what it’s worth, this wild dream is now closer to reality than ever before. 

It began in 1999 when, as a young founder, Musk made his first attempt at an X-themed payment solution by building an online bank which he called X.com. His intention with the co-founded company was to offer a full-scale financial and investment service. Unfortunately, after reaching just over 100,000 customers, X.com dwindled and had a merger with PayPal - which was an emerging payment service at the time.   

Musk had since gone on to imprint his favorite letter on his other companies and products including - Space X, his revolutionary rocket and spacecraft building company, and Tesla, his electric car company - with an unmistakable X model. 

Time Stamp of Musk’s X App Revelation

October 4, 2022

The move to reform Twitter to X had been on Musk’s agenda from the moment he decided to acquire the company. On October 4, 2022, Elon Musk tweeted that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” 

October 24, 2022

Again, according to the US Weekly Magazine, Elon mentioned that: “there has been much speculation about why I(he) bought Twitter and what I(he) think(s) about advertising. Most of it has been wrong. The reason I(he) acquired Twitter is that it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated healthily, without resorting to violence." 

July 23rd, 2022

Just last week, on July 23, 2022, the business magnate re-emerged with the idea of an X-themed application. It started with a short tweet that read "Paint it black." 

4:45 am

Not long after, Musk created a poll post where 74.8% of 1,8881,083 users voted to "change the default platform color to black" with only 25.2% voting against the idea.  

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The poll result meant that Musk had a ton of users backing his dream. But that was not the end of it. 

4:58 am

The Twitter CEO, on the same day, revealed a more controversial decision when he wrote, “Soon, we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds”, indicating his intention to replace the Twitter we are all familiar with his X-themed all-in-one application. 

6:44 pm

Elon further posted and retweeted a series of X logo videos and images before tweeting, at 6:44 pm, that “X.com now points to Twitter.com, Interim X logo goes live later today.”

9:33 pm 

At 9:33 pm, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino gave more insights into the day-long craze tweeting that: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity - centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.” 

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July 24th, 2023

The early morning of Monday, July 24th, 2023 saw the official launch of Musk’s everything app X. By this time, the Twitter website logo and loading image had already been changed to a black-white themed X image. 

What Does It Mean for Twitter Users?

Many tweeters have expressed concern and reservations about Musk’s X app idea while others seem to see it as a kind of necessary reform. 

Twitter user @mikeabel said: “Of course, you CAN change the name of Twitter. The real question is SHOULD you? It’s not only the company who owns the name. A brand is ultimately defined as “how customers feel about a product”. Now, I’m not asking you to ask your customers, but to at least consider them and their importance to your business.” Another user, @21WIRE, made a tweet that partly reads “Careful not to kill (the) bird that laid the golden egg.” 

Is His Decision Good or Bad?

Musk’s renaming of the Twitter app effectively erodes years of branding efforts put together by the founding team. Reactions from entrepreneurs, analysts, and the general public say that this might be a rash decision with heavy consequences waiting to happen. Replying to a response to his Tweet about buying and transforming Twitter, Musk himself had expressed uncertainty about his idea saying that “Twitter probably accelerates X by 3 to 5 years, but I could be wrong.” 

Nevertheless, it is difficult to truly predict whether Musk’s rebranding of Twitter is a good or bad idea since the entrepreneur has been well known to take fast, controversial actions and, perhaps from luck or sheer expertise, many of them ultimately turned out right. 

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