Elon Musk set to rebrand Twitter immediately – renaming the site ‘X’ – continuing his career-long fascination with the letter X, which has morphed into many of his projects.
The change, announced in a series of tweets from the Tesla and SpaceX leader, serves as the latest in a series of shakeups at the social media platform since Musk, 52, bought it late last year.
Musk’s affinity for the letter has grown over the course of 25 years in his professional and personal life, though he has rarely argued for it.
Now, it looks like one of the biggest social media apps will soon be known by a single character.
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the app of everything,” Musk recently wrote on Twitter, referring to new CEO Linda Iaccarino.
As Elon Musk sets to rebrand Twitter effective immediately – renaming the site ‘X’ – it continues his career-long fascination with the letter X, which has morphed into many of his projects.
One of Musk’s first ventures was known as X.com, first launched by Musk in 1999 as an online banking and financial services platform. The site later integrated with PayPal
One of Musk’s first ventures was known as X.com, first launched by Musk in 1999 as an online banking and financial services platform. A year later, he was forced to step down from his role as CEO of the firm.
‘Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it,’ Ashley Vance, author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, said of the X.com domain, according to NPR.
Three years later, he made $165 million when the site merged with PayPal and was bought by eBay.
Musk would later buy the X.com domain back from PayPal in 2017. That site now directs people to Twitter.
‘Thanks PayPal for allowing me to purchase X.com! No plans right now, but it has a lot of sentimental value to me,’ Musk wrote on Twitter in 2017.
This was Mask’s first major use of the letter X, but not the last.
Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.
He founded the company in 2002 and it recently made its $3 billion launch — a test flight that was considered a resounding success even after it burst into a spectacular fireball.
SpaceX and even NASA have all hailed the first flight of the massive new rocket as ‘exciting’ and a success. Kasturi was particularly upbeat about the latter – promising to launch again ‘within a few months’.
Tesla, where Musk is CEO, sells the Model X, which went on commercial sale in 2016
Tesla, where Musk is CEO, sells the Model X, which went on commercial sale in 2016. The car, a mid-sized luxury crossover SUV is recognized by its Falcon doors.
“The idea is that Tesla models will spell the word ‘sexy,'” says Tim Higgins, author of Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century. However, Ford held the rights to the Model E, which forced Musk to move on to the Model 3 – which is ‘kind of a backwards E’, Higgins points out.
Kasturi also notoriously brought the letter into his personal life, giving the letter to his son as a nickname.
Kasturi and her former partner, musician Grimes, raised eyebrows in May 2020 when they revealed the name of their newborn son: X Æ A-12.
The billionaire’s youngest son, three, is said to have been nicknamed X for short.
Shortly after her christening, X Æ A-12 was renamed X Æ A-Xii in violation of California’s naming laws that allow alphanumeric characters to be used around it.
The couple’s second child was later named ‘Y’ from Exa Dark Sideræl Musk.
With the SpaceX founder going through several divorces and high-profile relationships in recent times, Kasturi’s love life has been the subject of intrigue for years.
Elon Musk holds his son X in the Red Bull garage during practice for the Miami Grand Prix in May
The CEO first hinted at some big name changes at Twitter – which has been battling declining user numbers and increased competition in recent months – on Sunday morning, saying the bird logo would soon be replaced with a simple ‘X’.
He hinted that the symbol came as part of a larger rebrand of the entire platform as he searched for the right design.
Of the newly announced logo, which is still in limbo, he claimed: ‘The interim X logo will go live later today.’
According to NPR, Musk has long wanted to create an ‘everything app’ similar to the popular WeChat. This app has a strong hold in China, but there is no US version.
‘He wants to create an app similar to the way WeChat is used in China, where it’s part of the fabric of everyday life. You use it to communicate, receive news, buy things, pay your rent, book appointments with your doctor and even pay fines,’ Vance said.
Now, the social-media site bought for $44 billion appears to be going through the changes it first promised in October.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerated, all-in-one app for building X,” Musk said at the time of the purchase.
Musk has announced that he is rebranding Twitter immediately – renaming the site to the ‘X’ and the platform’s iconic blue bird logo as well.
Thousands of users saw Mask’s X teases, dropping design suggestions for the new logo, as well as questions behind his reasoning for the new name.
Several posters satirically mocked what would come of the already widely accepted term ‘tweeting’ as a result of the restructuring.
‘I’m not sure what to call now! post? Ex-post? Xost?’ Someone wrote
Another similarly asked: What will we call the ‘Tweet’ of the future if Twitter rebrands to X?’
Someone else said: ‘So no more tweeting what is it?’
Others seemed to poke fun at the famously flippant exec after his announcement, with some facing increased pressure with the recent emergence of meta-owned threads and his new company’s dwindling market valuation.
‘Ur[sic] So boring actually. What’s really the reason for this,’ one person said shortly after the announcement – which put a cap on a stream of a spirit-style series of tweets from Musk hinting at a large-scale rebrand.
‘Getting the thread right now,’ added someone else.
Kasturi, in trademark fashion, wanted to play with the flurry of sarcastic posts, momentarily asking her nearly 149 million followers: ‘What should we be tweeting?’
Several responded with their own self-made verbs to describe the act of posting on the now-changing social media site.
‘Xweeting,’ wrote one; ‘Expressing,’ wrote another.
A few hours ago, Musk hinted at some small but still fundamental changes to the platform, with several photos featuring some stylized form of the letter x — including a photo of himself crossing his arms.
Thousands of users weighed in on Mask’s answer, dropping design suggestions for the new logo, as well as questioning his rationale for the new name.
A few hours ago, Musk hinted at some small but still fundamental changes to the platform, with several photos featuring some stylized form of the letter x.
‘And soon we’ll be saying goodbye to the Twitter brand and slowly all the birds,’ reads a morning post from Musk.
This was followed by another broadcast: ‘If enough good X logos are posted tonight, we’ll go live worldwide tomorrow.’
He followed the announcement by offering some creative direction for potential designers: ‘If X is the closest thing to a style, it must be Art Deco.’
He then posted a dark version of the current Twitter logo and wrote, ‘Like this but X.’
Finally, Musk posted a shiny video of an X bird overtaking and pinned it to the top of his profile.
The image was proposed by Sawyer Merritt, co-founder of a sustainable clothing brand, and designed by Alex Tourville, a physics engineer.
It’s unclear whether the pinned XTE mask will use the company’s logo going forward
Kasturi, in trademark fashion, wanted to play with the flurry of sarcastic posts, momentarily asking her nearly 149 million followers: ‘What should we be tweeting?’
The site’s current logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter’s symbol since its creation in 2006, with the current design in use since 2012.
According to Twitter’s website, Larry is ‘our most recognizable asset’ and ‘why we’re so protective of it.’
In April, the site’s logo was briefly replaced with an image of a Shibu Inu dog, which helped boost the market value of Dogecoin, the popular meme coin, by $4 billion.
That same month, an email was sent to Twitter’s business partners informing them that the company had been renamed X Corp following the merger, but that the shortened social media platform would keep its original name — for now.
X Corp could also serve as a future parent company for Musk’s other businesses: Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.
When the corporate filing became public in April, Musk tweeted a simple ‘X’ to his millions of followers. It’s unclear when Musk will change Twitter’s name.
Kasturi appeared to hint at the court filing with a tweet: ‘X’
According to Twitter’s website, Larry the bird is ‘our most recognizable asset’ and ‘why we’re so protective of it’.
Musk showed his users an example of the aesthetic he had in mind for the new logo
The logo announcement comes about two weeks after the launch of Musk’s new artificial intelligence startup, xAI — which is now the sole occupant of Musk’s Twitter bio.
The Musk-led startup will aim to provide an alternative to ChatGPT.
According to Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the uncontrolled development of AI, the company will create a ‘highly curious’ AI.
‘If it’s trying to understand the true nature of the universe, that’s really the best thing I can come up with from an AI safety perspective,’ he said. ‘I think it would be in favor of humanity from the point of view that humanity is much more interesting than non-humanity.’
The logo change will be the latest of several changes to shake up the company since Musk’s takeover.
He has previously been criticized for winding up the company of most of his employees as well as cashing the status of ‘verified’ blue checks in April.
Earlier this month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched its own short-form posting app, called Threads.
Mark Zuckerberg said more than 30 million people signed up for the rival service in its first 24 hours.
Twitter has threatened to sue the company for allegedly stealing trade secrets.
Read Full News Here