At exactly 5 am on July 23, 2023, the world was asleep when Elon Musk, its richest man, chose to share his plans for Twitter in anticipation of the awakening of the rest of the global population.
In a series of tweets, Musk expressed his readiness to rebrand Twitter, a platform he acquired with a whopping sum of $44 billion, and battled a class action to keep.
The rebrand would see the replacement of the famous blue bird logo with an “X”. He said the change would take effect the following day as soon as a suitable design is received.
“…soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he had tweeted.
While this may be adjudged brash and impulsive, the billionaire is not one tweet chiefly for likes.
By 6:49 am on July 24, what was merely the thought of a man became the reality of the entire world: ‘X’ had become Twitter’s home page icon, the loading animation, and Musk’s profile image.
The ‘bird’ was leaving and it was announced in a tweet, marking an end to its 17 years run in the history of the microblogging firm.
“X is here! Let’s do this,” Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s chief executive officer (CEO), tweeted.
The rebrand is said to be part of a bigger plan to transform the platform into an “everything app” for all business and financial needs, including banking, digital purchases, checking, credit cards, investments, and loans.
In a memo to staff members, Yaccarino said the move positions the company to continue to delight users with new experiences in audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking — “creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities”.
“With X we will go even further to transform the global town square — and impress the world all over again,” the excited Twitter CEO wrote.
It is now over a week since the company switched logos hoping to “impress the world”, but not many share in this excitement and Musk’s vision for an all-encompassing app.
Analysts and tech experts believe the move was a bad idea, considering that Musk had pulled a similar stunt in the year 2000 when he tried to rebrand PayPal, the popular online payment system, but failed and was kicked out as CEO.
‘THE REBRAND IS RUSHED AND LACKS PLANNING’
“It’s not just the rebranding that worries me,” said Rufus Oyemade, a software developer. “It’s the overall direction he’s taking the company to — an everything app.”
“As of today, we already have serious monopolies in the social media and digital space. I do not think centralising everything is the way he should be steering the company. The Twitter app, as we know it, may lose its position as the modern village square of public conversation.”
Oyemade said Musk is undoing everything about the Twitter brand since the acquisition of the company, and seems to be experimenting publicly without thoroughly considering the consequences.
“Take, for instance, the recent issues with rate-limiting tweets/messages. This (the rebrand) just feels like another rushed decision without careful research and planning,” he added.
‘MAY INCREASE MARKETING COSTS FOR BUSINESSES’
While much of the negative or positive impact of the Twitter policy remains to be seen with time, Oyemada said companies in Nigeria will have to adopt the new brand identity in their visual communications.
This, he said, could lead to increased marketing expenditures to minimise any potential confusion.
“Just picture a market where brands like GTB are already struggling with bots and misidentification on the platform — now, they’ll have to invest heavily in user education to mitigate the risk of phishing attempts that may arise as a consequence of this rebrand,” he said.
Also speaking on the potential impact on businesses, Madumere Chukwuka, a UX researcher at Boldscholar Research, said the new name and logo could lead to brand confusion among users in Nigeria and worldwide.
This, the researcher said, could make it difficult for businesses to reach their target audience on Twitter.
Chukwuka said businesses may need to adjust their marketing strategies to reach their customer on the new Twitter — a situation that could lead to increased spending.
IT’S NOT ALL BAD
Sources interviewed by TheCable were mostly of the view that the rebrand is “a risky move that could backfire”.
Another arguement was that the name, ‘X’, is “not very distinctive and could easily be confused with other companies or products, such as the X-Files or the Xbox”.
But it is not ultimately a sorry story.
It is believed that the rebrand could spike competition for businesses on Twitter… now known as X.
“The new name and logo could attract new users to the platform,” Chukwuka said.