By Charles Mgbolu
In a series of tweets over the weekend, Elon Musk said that he was planning to change the logo of Twitter from the iconic bird, to an "X" marking what would be the latest big change since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year.
‘’I am looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world," Musk wrote late Sunday.
The mere thought of such a radical change stirred strong reactions on social media, with many users simply finding it strange.
‘’Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced that he will change the Twitter bird logo to an "X. However, Mask is known for his jokes," wrote a Twitter user named Abduljelil Kawo from Ethiopia.
Twitter 'unrecognisable'
But this was no joke, and since that first announcement from Musk, events have moved really fast. Within less than 24 hours, Musk matched his words with action.
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino also tweeted: ‘’For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfil our great potential. X will do that and more.''
The new Twitter brand logo went live on the platform on Monday, sending millions of fans and users reeling as they just couldn't understand why the iconic blue 'Robin' bird was axed.
‘’Why?’’ asked Nora Yeboah-Afari, an avid Twitter user from Ghana. ‘’I am looking at the logo now, and it just doesn’t feel the same. It is giving a very different vibe, and it makes Twitter almost unrecognisable,’’ she told TRT Afrika.
‘’What would a logo change do? Will this affect the name as well because the name Tweets is synonymous with birds? That is why the logo was a bird,’’ stressed Mayowa Adegoke, a social media analyst from Nigeria.
Common practice
But brand and marketing analyst Ade Adetunji thinks Elon Musk may be in the early phases of a huge marketing snowball to turn Twitter's fortunes around.
‘’Elon is someone who does things at a very fast pace, and what he has just done with a logo change is common with company takeovers,’’ Adetunji tells TRT Afrika.
‘’I believe there will be more changes coming, and this new logo is expected to strengthen the new identity of what Twitter is to become,’’ he said.
Since Twitter was bought by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the app has been in the eye of the storm, with layoffs, policy changes, and legal disputes remaining ongoing issues.
The most notable challenge, however, has been the launch of Threads from rival Meta, which forced Twitter to threaten legal action over what it called a "copycat" app, claiming Meta misused Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property. Meta denies the claims.
There are also financial troubles, with Musk announcing in July that the social media company's advertising revenues had plunged roughly 50%, highlighting an urgent need to reach positive cash flow.
There are still die-hard fans who are not ready to jump ship. ‘’Twitter is what I grew up with, and this logo rebrand, albeit disappointing, is not strong enough to dislodge me from the app,’’ says Nora.
‘’As long as he keeps the core of Twitter intact, which is a messaging platform that shares text, pictures, and videos, he would not lose many markets,’’ Adetunji said.
‘’I understand the strong sentiments attached, but as change is always inevitable, people will eventually learn to live with it,’’ concluded Adetunji.
