Elon Musk Officially Launches 'X' For Twitter's New Logo

Elon Musk and Twitter's Chief Executive Officer, Linda Yaccarino, announced the new Twitter logo (photo: twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - Elon Musk and Twitter's Chief Executive Officer, Linda Yaccarino, announced a new logo for the social media platform on Monday, July 24. The new logo features the white "X" letter above a black background in lieu of the familiar blue bird symbol.

"Lambang X is here! Let's do this," Yacarino tweeted, who also posted a picture of the logo projected at the company's office in San Francisco.

Both Yaccarino and Musk's Twitter accounts now display the "X" logo, although Twitter's blue bird is still visible across the platform.

X is here! Let’s do this. pic.twitter.com/1VqEPlLchj

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 24, 2023

X is here! Let's do this. pic.twitter.com/1VqEPlLchj

Hashtag "GoodbyeTwitter" became a trend on the platform referring to the old logo, as some users criticized the new logo.

Musk has said in a post on Sunday that he wants to change the Twitter logo and poll his millions of followers on whether they will agree to change the site's color scheme from blue to black.

He also posted a stylized "X" image with a black space theme background. He also called it the "temporary X logo" and tweeted that "soon we will say goodbye to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all birds."

Our headquarters tonight pic.twitter.com/GO6yY8R7fO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2023

Our headsquarters tonight pic.twitter.com/GO6yY8R7fO

Responding to a Twitter user who asked what to call a tweet under "X," Musk replied "x's."

The original Twitter logo was designed in 2012 by a team of three. "The logo is designed to be simple, balanced, and easy to read in very small sizes, almost like the 'e' letter," tweeted Martin Grasser, one of the logo designers.

Matt Rhodes, head of strategy at the creative agency House 337, told Reuters that any change to a well-established brand in popular culture is a risk.

"Only a few brands have been the word of office or mentioned in the global news media as much as Twitter," he said. "Everything that makes it difficult for people to find, or want to open apps on a messy phone screen, risks harming usage."

All Applications

A few weeks before completing last year's Twitter acquisition, Musk had said buying the company would accelerate his ambition to create an "app of everything" called "X" within three to five years.

Musk bought x.com back from PayPal in 2017, arguing it had a "sharp value." Musk was one of the founders of x.com as an online bank in 1999 which later turned into PayPal.

Although the official Twitter page on the platform has been renamed "X," the domain of x.com is not active.

"X is a future state of unrestricted interactivity centered on audio, video, messages, payments/banks creating global markets for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities," Yaccarino tweeted on Sunday, July 23.

Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, who took office as CEO of Twitter on June 5, took over as the social media platform seeks to reverse the decline in ad revenue.

Since being acquired by Musk, the company has faced difficult times with layoffs, sharp declines in advertisers, and the rapid rise of Threads, Meta's response to Twitter.

"The last months have been difficult for Twitter, and I don't think this new brand will solve anything," said Drew Benvie, CEO of social media consultant Battenhall. "It's more about building a brand around the Elon Musk kingdom, including SpaceX, where branding 'X' is really connected more closely."