Elon Musk bid adieu to Twitter’s classic bird logo over the weekend after showcasing the social media platform’s new “X” logo online and at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.
Musk’s decision to lose the iconic bird silhouette in favor of a black and white X icon is part of the billionaire’s broader rebranding effort for the social media company, now called X Corp.
“It’s an exceptionally rare thing — in life or in business — that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square,” X Corp. CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet.
While Musk had always planned to ditch the classic bird logo after buying Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, it wasn’t until Sunday that he finally moved forward with the change.
In classic Musk fashion, the billionaire began by encouraging Twitter users to submit their own designs for the new logo.
“If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make [it] go live worldwide tomorrow,” one tweet read. Another suggested, “If X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco.”
By the end of Sunday night, Musk’s interim X logo had gone live, and the X.com web address had formally been updated to direct users to Twitter.com.
Although the logo change has gone live across platforms, the desktop version appears to be the only one that carries the new black and white X icon, with mobile users still claiming to see the iconic blue bird, according to NBC 5 DFW.
To signify the official brand change, Yaccarino tweeted, “X is here! Let’s do this.”
Yaccarino has expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the company’s new direction.
“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” Yaccarino wrote.
“For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential. X will do that and more,” she added. “We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.”
As far as rebranding ‘tweets’ and ‘retweets,’ Musk has given no definitive answer but says the “whole concept should be rethought.”
Last month, financial services provider Fidelity knocked off roughly one-third of its equity value in Twitter after reassessing the company’s future growth prospects and overall worth, as The Dallas Express previously reported. This marks a drop in the valuation of Fidelity’s equity from approximately $20 million in October when Musk first purchased the social media company to just $6.55 million.