Twitter has
changed its brand and logo from its famous blue bird to "X".
The new white X
on a black background has replaced the blue bird on the desktop version of the
social network, although is yet to appear on the mobile app.
"Tweets"
will also be replaced, according to Twitter's owner Elon Musk, and posts will
be called "x's".
The billionaire
changed his profile picture to the new logo and added "X.com" to his
Twitter bio.
Mr Musk wants to
create a "super app" called X - his vision for a new kind of social
media platform that he has been talking about creating for months.
On Sunday, the
billionaire said he was looking to change Twitter's logo, tweeting:
"And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the
birds."
He then shared a
picture of the new X branding projected onto the side of Twitter headquarters
in San Francisco.
Mr Musk, who has
changed the name of the business to X Corp, said the replacement "should
have been done a long time ago".
He posted an
image of a flickering X on Twitter, and later in a Twitter Spaces audio chat,
replied "Yes" when asked if the Twitter logo would change.
Linda Yaccarino,
Twitter's new chief executive, wrote on the platform that the rebrand was an
exciting new opportunity.
"Twitter
made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate," she said.
"Now, X
will go further, transforming the global town square."
The bird is
called Larry which Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone said, in 2011, is a tribute
to basketball star and Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird.
People took to
Twitter to mourn the loss of the logo, including Martin Grasser who designed it
in 2012.
"Today we
say goodbye to this great blue bird," he said. Later the tweet was shared
by Jack Dorsey, Twitter's best-known co-founder with a goat emoji, which means
'greatest of all time'.
The
everything app
For some people
in Asia, super-apps including India's PayTM and Indonesia's GoJek have
been a vital part of everyday lives for the past few years.
The apps let
users pay for services through a finance system.
WeChat is a
messaging and social media platform that has evolved into one of the region's
biggest apps in terms of its range of services and number of users.
Last year, it
was estimated to have 1.29 billion users in China alone.
Drew Benvie,
social media commentator and founder of digital agency, Battenhall said,
"Musk is going full throttle for the everything app space, leaving old
Twitter in his wake, and eyeing the successes of Asia's trailblazers like
WeChat and Moj.
"Succeeding
in just a couple of additional services, such as shopping or payments, could be
all that's needed to make X better than Twitter was. But there are already so
many alternatives, so Musk and co are playing an enormous game of
catch-up."
Twitter's
website says its logo, depicting a blue bird, is "our most recognisable
asset".
"That's why
we're so protective of it," it added.
The firm
temporarily replaced the logo in April with Dogecoin's Shiba Inu dog, helping
drive a surge in the meme coin's market value.
Mr Musk was
later accused of insider trading by a group of Dogecoin investors,
who claimed he had profited from driving up Dogecoin's value.
Rapid rebrand
Business
commentator Justin Urquhart Stewart said Twitter's "loyal but aging
base" would not like the changes.
"The
younger generations have moved onto other apps and Twitter does look at bit
old-fashioned."
"Elon Musk
has got to be careful as you are almost starting from scratch with an older
audience meanwhile damaging the original brand," he said.
The very rapid
rebranding of Twitter has also caused some security concerns.
Jake Moore,
global cyber adviser at security firm ESET, said the transition from one
company name to another could encourage phishing, where criminals impersonate
people or organisations to steal users' data.
"A rebrand
is the perfect opportunity to send phishing emails requesting users to
sign in via a new URL from a link within that email - but of course that link
wouldn't be genuine and that's where people could be tricked into handing
over their genuine Twitter credentials without their usual level of
caution," he told the BBC.
"Cyber-criminals
can easily prey on this, especially those searching for that new URL."
X obsession
Mr Musk has long
had a fascination with the letter X - although no-one really knows why.
One of his first
business ventures in 1999 was known as X.com, which was an online banking
platform.
Just three years
later, Mr Musk made $165m when X.com - by then merged with PayPal - was bought
by eBay.
 |
| Elon Musk and Grimes' first child is named X Æ A-12 |
He also owns the X.com domain name, which now redirects to Twitter.
Mr Musk is also
chief executive of SpaceX, the commercial American aerospace company founded in
2002.
There is also
the name of his first child with musician Grimes - X Æ A-12 Musk.
Mr Musk also
recently launched his long-awaited artificial intelligence start-up - xAI - in
a bid to build an alternative to ChatGPT.
By Shiona McCallum || Technology
reporter
Initial
reporting by Tom Espiner & Noor Nanji
0 comments:
Post a Comment