Twitter rebrand: Why is Elon Musk changing name to X and should you move to Threads or Bluesky?

What has Elon Musk finished now?

9 months after shopping for Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk has determined to rebrand the platform. The title Twitter might be gone, as will its iconic chicken brand. Of their place, Musk is planning on renaming the platform X.

Why X?

That’s recognized solely by Musk himself, however he does have a fascination with the letter. It appears to have begun with X.com, the net funds firm Musk launched in 1999 and made his fortune from after merging with PayPal. Since then, he has gone on to launch SpaceX, whereas his electrical car firm Tesla sells the Mannequin X automotive, he named one in every of his sons X Æ A-12 and he not too long ago launched a man-made intelligence enterprise, xAI.

What else will change in addition to the title?

The emblem, for one factor: Musk held a crowdsourced competitors to interchange the Twitter chicken brand with a brand new one. The winner was Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt, who supplied Musk a brand beforehand designed for a now-discontinued podcast. And this new lick of paint is only the start, if Musk and the corporate’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, are to be believed.

Yaccarino tweeted (or ought to that now be “xed”?) that “X is the longer term state of limitless interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, funds/banking – creating a world market for concepts, items, providers, and alternatives. Powered by AI, X will join us all in methods we’re simply starting to think about.”

What that really means is troublesome to discern. It could possibly be a nod to Musk’s longstanding plans to develop an “every part app” within the method of China’s WeChat – one thing Musk mentioned again in October 2022 his buy of Twitter was an “accelerant” for.

However observers are unimpressed. “By claiming that X would be the platform that may ship every part, [Yaccarino] is forgetting that the web exists,” says Steven Buckley at Metropolis, College of London. “The web is the platform for every part.”

Will this plan work?

In all probability not. All the things apps, standard in China, contain giving entry to massive elements of your life to the individuals working them. The previous few months of chaos underneath Musk could postpone some sceptics from permitting the entrepreneur’s agency to entry their financial institution accounts.

For that cause, Musk might be counting on the speed of latest arrivals to X outpacing these abandoning ship. “If Twitter administration is hoping to draw new individuals to the platform, they hope they’re sufficient to interchange those they proceed to lose and alienate,” says Om Malik, a distinguished tech investor.

So ought to I transfer to Threads as a substitute?

Meta’s Twitter-alike app, launched earlier this month, would seem like probably the most safe lifeboat for these seeking to escape Twitter (or X) in the long term. It’s backed by Mark Zuckerberg’s huge tech firm, and has built-in integrations with Instagram. The workforce behind it has promised extra options within the coming weeks and months to compete with Twitter.

What about Bluesky?

The decentralised various to Twitter, began by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has its personal points, together with content material moderation snafus. When it comes to customers, it has largely been overtaken by Threads, which was in a position to faucet into Instagram’s present community to achieve 100 million customers in simply 5 days. Bluesky remains to be an invite-only app, and as such is rising far slower, with round 350,000 reported customers.

Are there another options?

A complete cavalcade of rivals has popped as much as try to capitalise on Twitter’s travails. Mastodon was one early various, however stays the protect of tech adherents, whereas Submit.Social, Spill, T2 and others make up the pack.

However that is the nub of the issue: at current, there isn’t actually a direct various to Twitter with all of the options customers love. Whether or not they care to stay round on X stays to be seen.