On July 23, Twitter owner Elon Musk raised eyebrows with his announcement that Twitter would be rebranding to “X,” and that “Tweets” would be renamed “X’s” (yes, really). The platform’s new title hearkens back to the venture which first put Musk’s name on the map: X.com, which would later become PayPal.
This comes as the latest in a series of controversial changes Musk has made to Twitter. But this one is not like the others: it is the first step in a complete reorganization of the platform.
Musk’s ownership of Twitter has been unorthodox from the very beginning. He was initially eager to buy the company, but tried to cancel after claiming the site was rife with bot accounts. This cancellation was denied in a court of law, and he was forced to purchase it for $44 billion. It arguably has not gone well for him thus far: the company has lots of debt, is unprofitable, and has lost 50% of its advertising revenue since his takeover. He has described the experience as painful.
With this context in mind, it makes sense that Musk is pursuing a complete overhaul of the platform. In his usual style, it is very ambitious. This rebrand was telegraphed in an October 2022 tweet in which Musk said he hoped to create “the everything app.”
According to a series of X’s from X’s current chief executive officer (can you see how this is going to be a problem?), X will feature audio, messaging, payment and banking capabilities. Further, it is supposedly going to be “powered by AI,” although there are no specific details on this yet.
The uncertainty — and pessimism — surrounding Musk’s management has led to the creation of many copycat services intended to overtake Twitter’s market share. Facebook’s parent company Meta recently released Threads, a platform with extremely similar design and functionality to Twitter. TikTok recently announced the implementation of text posts. Even Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, has been increasingly promoting “Nostr,” an alternative social networking site which he has financially supported.
With the company in a dire financial position and many competitors eager to take Twitter‘s crown, it is not an exaggeration to say that the platform’s future depends on the success of this rebrand. If successful, it may become as big as Musk imagines it — a bustling hub of conversation and commerce, a “global town square.” If the team is able to execute quickly and intelligently, this has the potential to be a business turnaround story for the history books. Otherwise… it may just end up as a lot of people’s ex-favorite website.