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Blue bird out, ‘X’ in: Elon Musk’s Twitter executes rebrand

It’s officially the end of an era, as Twitter swaps out its iconic blue bird logo with a stylised “X”. The move is seen as the beginning of the fulfilment of Elon Musk’s goals of creating an “everything app,” his term for apps that fuse several features, most notably patterned after the Chinese social media app WeChat.

The rebrand came just hours after Musk announced the changes on his Twitter page.

Eventually, even the brand name will be retired, Musk says.

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk said.

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Musk handpicked the new logo from several user-submitted logos on the platform.

Recently-installed CEO Linda Yaccarino said X will be “the future of unlimited interactivity centred 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 said.

Why ‘X’?

Elon Musk is notably fond of the letter. His rocket manufacturing and space exploration company is famously called “SpaceX,” and one of the first vehicles he released with Tesla is the “Model X.”

When Musk bought Twitter, he merged it with X Corp, a company he established as successor to Twitter, Inc. X Corp is also a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings Corp.

But Musk’s affinity for the letter goes all the back to 1999, when he was still making a name for himself with online payments. He launched X.com, an online bank that later merged with its rival, Confinity.

Two years later, Musk stepped down as X.com’s CEO, and the company renamed itself as Paypal.

Musk bought the domain “X.com” from Paypal in 2017, citing sentimental value. As of writing, the “X.com” now redirects to the Twitter home page.

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Paulo Rizal
Paulo Rizal
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.