Twitter is one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, with its two most identifiable brand features being the name itself — “Twitter” — and the iconic logo of a white bird against a blue background. In July 2023, Elon Musk exchanged the name “Twitter” and its distinguishable logo for the new name of “X” and a generic, white Unicode “X” symbol against a black background. While this somewhat drastic decision may shock some, it is important to take note of some other changes that Elon Musk has made to the popular social media platform after acquiring it in 2022.
Elon Musk’s interest in Twitter as a business began in January 2022 when Musk began investing in Twitter. He claimed he wanted to own Twitter to revise content moderation policies to promote free speech and purge fake or bot accounts from the platform. In April 2022, Musk offered to buy Twitter but later backed out of the deal, which caused Twitter to pursue legal action against Musk. Over the course of a monthslong, tumultuous journey of struggle and drama between Musk and Twitter, Musk closed a deal to own Twitter for $44 billion on October 28, 2022. Upon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, several of Twitter’s top executives were fired. According to ABC News, soon after, Twitter began “layoffs that [would] cut roughly half of its 7,500-person workforce.” Musk also reinstated Twitter accounts that were previously banned for violating community guidelines. Shortly after, Twitter introduced a subscription service, Twitter Blue, which included many features that were unavailable to non-subscribers. Most notably, Twitter Blue allowed subscribers to display a coveted blue verification check on their profile, previously only available to public figures. Musk turned Twitter into a private company, meaning he does not need to regularly disclose how the company is performing to shareholders.
In more recent affairs, Musk has rebranded “Twitter” to “X” in an attempt to transform Twitter into an “everything app.” Interestingly, in 1999, Musk founded an online bank, X.com, intended to be an “everything” website for financial needs. X.com eventually merged with other companies and became what is now known as PayPal. Musk presently rebranded Twitter with the intention of turning the app into a super app similar to WeChat. He aims to allow Twitter users to make payments in real-time. In addition, some Twitter Blue users have said that they have received thousands of dollars of Twitter's ad revenue through an initiative that Musk announced in February. Twitter Blue users are continuously receiving access to more features than non-subscribers have. For example, a non-subscriber's post is limited to 280 characters, while Twitter Blue users can post with up to 25,000 characters. Non-subscribers can upload videos up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds in length, while Twitter Blue users can upload videos with a maximum length of two hours.
Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he has made various changes to the platform, including changing the app’s entire brand identity and introducing a subscription service. As Musk further modifies the app’s features and identities, only time will tell if these changes are for the better or worse.
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