Elon Musk announced the renaming of Twitter as “X” and the elimination of all associated words and the bird logo. Analysts estimate that the move has caused Twitter to lose between $4 billion and $20 billion in brand value, dealing a significant financial blow.
The new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, revealed the vision for “X” to become a multifaceted platform for audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking. Critics view the renaming as a mistake, as Twitter was a highly recognisable social media brand with its own linguistic impact through terms like “tweet” and “retweet.”
The rebranding will require the company to rebuild its cultural pull and linguistic consensus from scratch, which some believe might be the motivation to move away from comparisons with the previous Twitter. Other tech companies have renamed themselves in the past, but this move stands out due to the complete erasure of the original product’s name.Twitter’s brand value was estimated at about $4 billion, making it a significant loss for the company.
Advertisers have been concerned about Musk’s controversial behaviour and his embrace of rule-breaking users, leading to a decline in advertising revenue of more than 50% since Musk’s takeover. Critics consider the decision to rebrand “completely irrational” from a business and branding perspective, attributing it to Musk’s ego. The rebranding may also pose risks to Musk’s plans to integrate banking and payments into the app, as customer trust is harder to establish with a brand-new product name.
Despite the criticism, some believe that Musk’s personal brand power might outweigh the impact of the Twitter brand change.
