Nota Bene: Musk's most controversial decision, or Who will want to 'x' now
Twitter will soon cease to exist. And all because of its new owner’s 'brilliant' idea
Mind continues to publish materials in the Nota Bene column. This format envisages a slightly more emotional tone, which, however, is compensated by the depth of expertise of the authors on the subject under investigation. Today, we present the opinion of our new author Yuriy Svitlyk regarding the rebranding of the social media platform Twitter.
What can you do with a globally recognised brand of social media, which has become a worldwide consciousness and pop culture, when you're Elon Musk? Of course – destroy it, because it didn't submit to you, but you bought it.
This is the end of Twitter. No more tweets. From now on, we will 'exit'. Send a tweet to an ex? Who knows how Elon Musk envisions the new brand of his site after the name change.
Twitter is turning into X. Rather, XD
What happened on Twitter over the past weekend on Elon Musk's account would typically be called alkotwitter. But we are talking about a visionary and genius, so the chaotic series of strange tweets that Musk spammed was undoubtedly well-thought-out. In any case, out of this chaos emerged the senseless X.
So, from now on, Twitter will be called X. The domain X. – x.com.
I am more than certain that everyone will still call it "Twitter" for at least the next five years, but the fact remains: as of today, Twitter has officially ceased to exist. Elon Musk did not provide a particular explanation for the change, except "I like the letter X" (ah, what a great man!).
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of Twitte... sorry, X, shed some more light on how rarely companies get a second chance to make a first impression. In a series of tweets (Xs?), she also spouted a healthy dose of marketing nonsense about how this X stands for "unlimited interactivity", centred around sound, video, messaging, payments, and banking operations.
Indeed, what we have long suspected is now confirmed – Musk wants to have his own WeChat
An application that aims to be not just a social network but also a messenger, payment operator, store, in short, everything for people. While I consider Musk more of a swindler than a visionary, the concept is still relevant. In the West, there are no such applications, while WeChat is breaking popularity records in the East. It is a market that no one has managed to develop in Ukraine (although many, like Facebook, have tried very hard). Even Dіya is trying, but they are going in a completely different direction. Therefore, the business potential is enormous, and we must give it to the billionaire.
However, there is a separate question about the value of rebranding to X. Musk seems to be approaching the matter, excuse the pun, from the wrong side, first changing the name and only then planning to implement new functionalities.
Today, Twitter is still Twitter – a limping social platform, maimed by its new owner, where every week more and more features become paid. However, Twitter is far from being an 'application for everything'.
Perhaps no one would have complained if Twitter had first expanded with additional features and only then – when its original identity had much in common with what it became – changed its name to one that better suited its new capabilities. Meanwhile, Elon Musk decided to do the exact opposite, introducing communication chaos.
It seems that Musk did this for one reason: to stop the endless stream of criticism directed at him ever since he became the owner of Twitter. No one can ever say that Elon broke Twitter because Twitter is gone. There's X now. And now Musk can talk about how he is creating the application of the future from scratch, just like he built his empire from scratch. Oh, wait… There is no empire; it rather resembles ruins.
Why this rebranding?
Currently, it is uncertain how users will react to this. Those following Elon Musk and naturally engaged with Twitter express mixed opinions about the logo design. They also voice the opinion that this could be a sign that Twitter, as we know it, is simply coming to an end.
We don't know whether Musk's move is driven by the fact that Facebook's Threads is taking over the network, and the brand, as he puts it, needs an update, or if he's just following the rebranding trend (Facebook – Meta). Perhaps it was simply his decision – after all, they will be the owners of the online platform, and they can do whatever they want with it.
However, X is unlikely the best name for Twitter. Similar to how everyone still says "Facebook" for Meta, they will probably still say "Twitter" for Twitter because this brand has much greater influence. So it is uncertain whether Musk's decision might metaphorically shoot himself in the foot. Whether that's the case – we'll only find out in some time.
The OpenMind authors, as a rule, are invited experts and contributors who prepare the material on request of our editors. Yet, their point of view may not coincide with that of the Mind editorial team.
However, the team is responsible for the accuracy and relevance of the opinion expressed, specifically, for fact-checking the statements and initial verification of the author.
Mind also thoroughly selects the topics and columns that can be published in the OpenMind section and processes them in line with the editorial standards.
