Elon Musk on Sunday signaled he would do more to take the social media company in a new direction with a rebranding that will replace its well-known blue bird logo with an X after acknowledging advertisers have been slow to return.
The adjustment was made due to Musk's recent revelation that advertising revenue is still only about half what it previously was; however, it was not immediately apparent on the website on Sunday evening. And as a result of it and its high debt level, Twitter's cash flow has been negative.
According to Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, the decision would further alienate Twitter's founding and once highly devoted user base.
"On the one hand, you can argue that he would be getting rid of an iconic brand. On the other hand, he is signaling it is a new day for what was once Twitter and that the company is heading in a different direction with a different user base."
Musk wrote in a Sunday post that he wanted to change Twitter's logo and asked his millions of followers whether they would favor changing the site's color scheme from blue to black. He posted a picture of a stylized X against a black outer space-themed background.
"And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds," he posts.
Late Sunday afternoon, Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, tweeted: "It's a scarce 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."
Under Musk's tumultuous tenure, since he bought Twitter in October, the company has changed its business name to X Corp, reflecting the billionaire's vision to create a "super app" like China's WeChat.
In April, Twitter's legacy blue bird logo was temporarily replaced by Dogecoin's Shiba Inu dog, helping drive a surge in the cryptocurrency's market value.
The company came under widespread criticism from users and marketing professionals when Musk announced early this month that Twitter would limit how many tweets various accounts can read per day.
The daily limits helped Meta Platforms-owned (META.O) rival service Threads, which crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of its July 5 launch.
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