Opinion | Why Elon Musk’s rebrand of Twitter to X is a brilliant idea poorly executed

In a memo to staff, Elon Musk said his social media company was worth about US$20 billion. He paid US$44 billion for it. That is a big loss after he rebranded Twitter as X.

While many branding gurus, keyboard warriors and journalists argue that he made a giant mistake, I do not agree. His vision to make X an “everything app” could challenge the stronghold of multifunctional platforms such as Facebook and WeChat and possibly revolutionise the way we interact with the internet.

Considering how most social media platforms are struggling to turn a profit when advertisements are their main source of revenue, the “everything app” idea makes sense. Twitter already had problems staying afloat as the company’s cash flow went negative amid a nearly 60 per cent drop in ad revenue, a trend Musk blamed on advertisers trying to drive Twitter to bankruptcy.

Other platforms such as Snapchat, Meta and Reddit are already introducing subscription models to curb the slowed growth of digital ad revenue and differentiate themselves. Musk tried this, but most users of his platform were not interested in paying for special features.

The main problem with trying to make X the “everything app” of the West boils down to execution. Musk has changed the logo of the app without solidifying how its identity differs from Twitter. As a result, the platform lacks any unique traits that customers can recognise and connect with, leaving them confused and annoyed at the shift.