ELON MUSK IS THINKING ABOUT REBRANDING TWITTER AS X

X has replaced Twitter’s iconic bird logo in a radical rebranding by Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Early Sunday morning, Musk announced his plans in a shock announcement. The tweet said that X.com now points to Twitter.com by Monday morning US time.

He wrote, shortly before sharing a photo of Twitter’s headquarters lit up with a giant new X, “Interim X logo goes live later today.”.

Rather than the familiar blue bird, the Twitter website now sports the same logo.

It was previously reported that Musk was bidding “adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

Over the past decade, Twitter (TWTR) has used its vivid, globally recognized blue bird emblem.

As Musk has repeatedly warned that Twitter was on the verge of bankruptcy due to steep losses in ad revenue, the renaming could be seen as a brand overhaul “Hail Mary” for the company.

Facebook (FB) parent Meta launched rival social media platform Threads earlier this month, adding to the pressure. In its first week, 100 million users signed up.

Prior to being taken private by Musk in October 2022, Twitter had 238 million active users.

Known for his innovations in rocket launches and electric car manufacturing through SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA), Musk is one of the world’s wealthiest men.

Nowadays, the headlines he makes are for his eccentric remarks on Twitter – often sharing conspiracy theories and getting into public spats.

Musk overhauled the site after acquiring it for $44 billion in late October, followed by mass layoffs, disputes over millions of dollars allegedly owed in severance and Musk’s note to employees that staying at the company meant “working long hours at high intensity.” The grade will be earned only by exceptional performance.

A number of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Free Press, and GLAAD, urged brands to rethink Twitter advertising as a result of the upheaval.

As a result of Musk’s mass layoffs, these groups cite fears that Twitter’s election-integrity policies will be effectively unenforceable, even if they remain technically active.

During this time, Musk also oversaw controversial policy changes that led to frequent service disruptions at Twitter and damaged his reputation.

Former NBCUniversal marketing executive Linda Yaccarino was named CEO of Tesla in June.

“It’s rare – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression,” she tweeted on Sunday afternoon. Twitter changed the way we communicate and made a huge impact. The global town square will now be transformed by X.”

New ventures face challenges as they begin. Due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt loads, Musk recently disclosed that the platform has a negative cash flow.

Musk called himself a “free speech absolutist” and said he wanted to buy Twitter to increase the freedom to speak freely on the platform by criticizing the exit, or pause, of such Twitter advertisers as General Mills (GIS), Macy’s (M), and some car companies that compete with Tesla.

In an explanation of his approach to free speech, Musk asked: “Is someone you don’t like entitled to say something you don’t like?” If so, then free speech exists.”

In addition, he said Twitter would be “very reluctant to delete things” and would aim to allow all legal speech on its platform. It has been feared that this could lead to an increase in hate speech.

The initial frenzy around rival Threads has faded, especially since it has been plagued by spam and lacks many of the user-friendly features Twitter, or now X, provides.

Adam Mosseri, who oversees Meta’s Threads launch, has hinted at plans for a desktop version, a feed of only accounts a user follows, and an edit button.

There is no evidence that it can attract advertising support, as of yet.