Twitter’s Rebranding to X a ‘Risky Move,’ Analysts Say

Elon Musk rebranding Twitter to X might be a bad idea.

Although Musk is living and fulfilling his dream of getting his everything app on X.com, analysts warn that rebranding Twitter to X is a risky move from a branding perspective.

Musk previously planned to make Twitter into an everything app - a "digital town square" where users can leave comments, and eventually make payments in crypto or fiat currency.

Branding Issues Abound

Musk's dreams of getting his everything app are coming true despite the financial setbacks he went through. Thanks to his acquisition of Twitter in late 2022, he now has what he needs to rebrand Twitter into X.com and bid adieu to the famous bird Twitter first started with.

A report from The Guardian states that X.com has long been an obsession of Musks's since his days as PayPal's owner. He even acquired Twitter due to his plans of transforming it into his everything app, describing it as "an accelerant to creating X, the everything app."

He even folded the company into an entity called X Corp, whose parent is X Holdings Corp.

However, the rebranding from Twitter to X.com, along with the loss of its iconic bird logo, could be a risky move from a branding perspective. According to Wedbush Securities Managing Director Daniel Ives, whom Reuters interviewed on July 24, the rebranding of Twitter to X.com is risky as Twitter's logo is more iconic and identifiable than X.

Ives added that losing such an iconic logo as Twitter's bird is dangerous, as it is clearly a desperate move or "back against a wall" for Twitter, which probably "detracts from the value that you lose the iconic Twitter birdie."

Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a brand and marketing company, said as much as Ives - he described Musk's move of rebranding Twitter to X as a "completely irrational move" from a brand or business point of view.

Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said that choosing a standard character that anyone else can use like X, seems very peculiar. He explained that companies normally spend large sums of money to design a unique logo to stand out from the crowd, making Musk's X brand an odd decision.

The Everything App Musk Wants

Musk believes that his X.com idea would revolutionize social media in the US via the creation of a "super app." According to his plan, his everything app would allow users to make transactions like shopping, paying, and messaging in one platform, similar to how WeChat works, per Ars Technica.

However, Musk had to acquire Twitter first, which he called an "accelerant to X," or build his everything app from scratch, with the latter option probably being unappealing to the SpaceX CEO due to the resources involved.

Whether Musk is capable of actually creating the app he had in mind, no one knows. With Linda Yaccarino at the helm, things might turn out alright for Musk's dream super app.