Twitter se réinvente : découvrez le nouveau visage de X

Techno Twitter becomes X and changes its logo

Elon Musk’s Latest Move Shakes Up Twitter

(New York) Elon Musk has once again made a major change to Twitter, bidding farewell to its famous blue bird on Monday and rebranding it as X, a new step in the entrepreneur’s ambitious plan to create a super-app that does it all, with mixed reactions.

Published at 6:17 a.m. Updated at 12:45 p.m. Agence France-Presse

If the black-and-white X logo appears once logged into the site, its web address still remains Twitter.com for now. As for the mobile application, it still features the iconic bird image launched in 2006, as observed by an AFP journalist. On Sunday, Elon Musk changed his Twitter profile picture, replacing it with the new logo described as “minimalist art deco.” “We will soon say ‘adieu’ (in French, Editor’s note) to the Twitter brand, and gradually to all birds,” he tweeted the day before, to the surprise of many. When asked by a Twitter user, Mr. Musk also indicated that tweets would be called X after the name change.

The Symbolic Meaning of X

X is a mathematical symbol that the entrepreneur particularly loves. X.com was the name and website of the online bank founded by Elon Musk in 1999, which later became the online payment service PayPal. He also adopted the symbol for the aerospace company SpaceX, the holding company that acquired Twitter (called X Corp), and xAI, a start-up dedicated to artificial intelligence unveiled in mid-July, as well as for the first name of one of his children, a boy named XÆA-12.

A Delicate Period for Twitter

This identity change comes at a delicate time for Twitter, as its advertising revenues have plummeted by 50%, with many advertisers hesitant due to Elon Musk’s abrupt reshuffles and decisions that have been deemed difficult to decipher. Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion last year, Mr. Musk has regularly mentioned his nebulous project to transform it into a multifaceted application, with financial services akin to WeChat in China.

A “New Start”

X “operating with AI (artificial intelligence) will connect us in a way that we are just beginning to imagine,” detailed the new CEO of the company, Linda Yaccarino, on Twitter Sunday. “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered around audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global market for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities,” she added. “There is absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can provide, well… everything,” she continued.

“For years, both fans and critics have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, innovate faster, and reach our potential. X will achieve that and more,” assured this former executive of NBCUniversal, recruited by Mr. Musk, in part, to reassure advertisers.

A Monumental Marketing Mistake

“A name change can signal strategic evolution, modernize a brand, or help overcome an image crisis,” explains Vanitha Swaminathan, a marketing professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “In the case of Twitter, it’s all three at once.” In the case of the social network, “it could offer a fresh start,” says the academic, “but it needs to be followed by specific measures that show that something is actually happening.”

“This change is a monumental marketing mistake,” retorted entrepreneur Sam Kelly on Twitter. “Twitter is an iconic global brand with immense value. An entire terminology has emerged around it,” such as the verb “to tweet,” which has become part of everyday language, “which cannot be replicated with ‘X‘.”

Skepticism and Potential

Simon Kemp, CEO of digital consultancy firm Kepios, expressed skepticism about Twitter‘s ability to become a super-app, which would require massive investments, whereas Elon Musk has primarily focused on cost-cutting measures so far. “Given how Mr. Musk has treated Twitter employees since acquiring the social network, I don’t think many developers will rush” to join the company and “create new applications,” unless Mr. Musk can offer exceptional incentives, which “will be even more challenging given the company’s current indebtedness,” Mr. Kemp judged. However, the platform could become “an excellent aggregator of global and paid information,” he estimated.

A Competitive Landscape

The social network is facing numerous competing applications, including the newcomer launched by Meta, Threads, which has approximately 117 million users, according to the specialized firm Quiver Quantitative. Meanwhile, Twitter had just over 200 million daily users as of early July, according to the company SensorTower.

Keywords: Renovation, Transformation, Innovation, Modernization, Twitter, social media, innovation, X