Musk’s new direction begins with a name and logo change: gone is Twitter’s bluebird, and in comes the letter X, dear to the social media patron and destined to replicate WeChat.

Twitter no longer exists; in its place comes X. With a series of messages and banter with his followers, Elon Musk gave the final push to the microblogging site that had become popular for reporting what was happening in the world before anyone else. This was the case for the Arab Spring, the American elections, the war between Ukraine and Russia, and all events in news, politics, sports and entertainment. The word passed before everyone else on Twitter. From now on, perhaps this will no longer be the case because there will not be much left of the Twitter we have known so far, as decided by Elon Musk.

A great lover of social media launched by Jack Dorsey in 2006, the father of Tesla and SpaceX bought the company for $44 billion, a figure much higher than its actual value, which convinced the old management to leave everything in Musk’s hands because it would have been impossible to receive a similar offer from anyone else.

Musk’s wrong choices regarding Twitter

Since his arrival Musk has changed everything. He has laid off 4,500 employees out of a workforce of 6,000, tried to make up for the money lost by fleeing advertisers through Twitter Blue, a subscription of 11 euros a month or 115 euros a year on iOS and Android for the blue tick, more visibility and less advertising, but the gimmick has proved disappointing. In this way, it has distorted the social of brevity with the possibility of writing messages without limits and, even worse, granting the blue tick to anyone willing to pay a monthly subscription. A choice that multiplied the spread of fake news, driving away users (many moved to Threads by Meta, Bluesky and Mastodon) who hoped to find a better Twitter.

Disappointed by the poor takings, in recent weeks, Musk decided to limit the number of tweets visible daily, both for those who are subscribed to the platform but do not pay the subscription to Blue and those who are not subscribed. Another unpopular choice that has drawn him criticism and protests.

The importance of X for the new boss

If this was, in short, what has been done so far, it is still shrouded in mystery what we can expect from Twitter soon. Indeed, something is inevitable, starting with the name and logo. The bluebird, designed in 2006 in honour of Larry Bird, one of the strongest and most famous players in the NBA wearing the Boston Celtics jersey, has been retired to make room for X, representing Twitter’s new direction.

Musk found the logo now provisional from the proposals that responded to his request. The choice fell on the white-edged X on a black background designed by Sawyer Merritt, which now stands in place of the old logo when accessing the social media site. X is nothing new for Twitter since last April. Musk created the company X Corp. to which he transferred platform ownership. X is also the letter that marked Musk’s career because X.com was the company’s name that later transformed into PayPal, the springboard to establish himself as Silicon Valley’s tech guru and visionary.

Keyword: money

Long hypothesised, the move from Twitter to X follows Musk’s plan to attempt to achieve the first and most important of his goals since becoming the company’s number one: monetising its more than 300 million users. Doing so was always the old ownership’s weak point; succeeding now is Musk’s tremendous confidence, even if the start has stuttered.

However, the time has come to turn over a new leaf and introduce X, the super app to channel various services: online shopping, electronic payments, messaging services, and social media. The attempt is to replicate in the West what WeChat does in China, so much so that Musk speaks of X as the ‘everything app’.

Former Twitter: The everything app

Announcing what we can expect from the change in Twitter was Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the company and Musk’s closest collaborator, who the owner asked to draw up a series of strategic partnerships on a commercial level with which to regain share and trust from companies interested in advertising on Twitter. She explained in a series of tweets that we quote in full what X will look like and what it will offer.

“It’s a scarce thing – in life or 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 is the future of unlimited interactivity – centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. AI-powered X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine. 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. We’ve already seen X take shape over the past eight months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.

What the future holds

There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well….everything. Elon Musk and I are looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world. Beyond the sadness of the users who find themselves forced to give up a social media that has no equal, Musk’s will is sovereign because he is the one who paid for it (thanks to loans from the banks), and therefore, it is up to him to make the decisions. Although only with time will we be able to find out what awaits us, it is not certain that Twitter’s metamorphosis will make things worse.

What is certain is that social media will disappear as we have known it for the past 17 years. Still, we must wait before making any judgments, provided that there are no political objectives behind Musk’s plan because of the US presidential elections scheduled for 2024.