It’s the week of the rebrand on Marketing, with yet another company deciding that it’s time to shake things up. Twitter is pivoting to ‘X’.

Though the familiar text-driven social media platform is still named Twitter, that is set to change. The company and its high-profile owner Elon Musk recently launched new branding, with a black, white and red theme replacing the light blue. And its iconic logo, the bird silhouette, has been replaced by a stylised letter x.

The degradation of Twitter seems final, with even the facade of the once thriving platform torn away and the current platform shown without its familiar glow.

The transition to the new branding is fragmented. While the browser version of Twitter shows off its moody ‘X’, on mobile there is no sign of an update. Both the app icon and user interface still have the bird logo.

Issues arose immediately as it looks like rivals Microsoft and Meta own trademarks of the letter x, with that of the latter even relating to software and social media.

Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X pic.twitter.com/nwB2tEfLr8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Advertising dollars tumble

Already in a tailspin, last month the platform introduced controversial rate caps that limit the number of tweets users could interact with in a given timeframe. Even for those of us not investing in Twitter campaigns it was an annoying move, but for advertisers the hammer fell hardest.

With campaigns suddenly restricted, Twitter paid the price. Similarweb recently revealed that Twitter’s ad spend year-on-year had dropped 20 percent in June with traffic down 11 percent for the same period, amounting to an overall ad revenue decline of 50 percent.

It was not a good time for Meta to debut its new rival to the platform, Threads, which launched 6 July to the general public in 100 countries, after allowing influencers and brands a head start of two days to provide an initial wave of content.

What is it with Elon and the letter x?

Musk has a history with this particular letter, which was instrumental in building his career. He was a founder of web 1.0 site X.com, an online bank that became Paypal. The domain name was bought from the company by Musk in 2017, and as of this week, it now links back to Twitter.

Though he may be best known for Tesla, Musk’s most ambitious venture is SpaceX. The commercial rival to NASA charges US$67 million for rocket launches in the marvellous satellite industry.

In 2020, he and then-partner Grimes even named their son X Æ A-12, so the fascination is evident in both professional and personal life.

Without any of this context it could appear to some internet natives that Musk is launching Twitter into a revolutionary direction, because the letter has another, adult, association.

These are all porn except one. That one’s Twitter. pic.twitter.com/VYUWOFsFTv

— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) July 24, 2023

Elon Musk should be worrying less about tackling Mark Zuckerberg in a fist fight and focus more on the corporate warfare the latter’s company just declared with its fresh Threads platform.

The two social media magnates have been posturing online as proficient fighters recently, leading Musk to issue an invitation to a “cage match”, but Zuckerberg has just struck a major blow of a different kind.

A new Meta app should be Musk’s primary concern.

So what is Threads?

Threads is a sudden challenger for the established micro-blogging platform Twitter, as Meta finally takes on its oldest rival. It launched 6 July to the general public in 100 countries after allowing influencers and brands a head start of two days to provide an initial wave of content.

The new “text-based conversation app” as Instagram have labelled it shares a design ethos with Twitter. Many of Twitter’s features can be found on the new app, including tweets as “threads” and retweets as “reposts”. The feed is a recognisable combination of follower content and recommendations. 

Posts can contain up to 500 characters and can include links, photos and carousels of up to ten images, and even videos up to five minutes.

The rollout does not yet include EU countries though the company is working on launching in that region at a later date. There is also no current advertising compatibility, with Instagram having no plans to integrate sponsors this year.

An Instagram twist on tweeting

Threads comes strongly from the Instagram side of Meta’s portfolio, not as a standalone product. Users are invited to port across their profile and followers, with Meta seemingly trying to kickstart user networks. One welcome screen says the app is “Powered by Instagram” and promises future compatibility with other services.

The official account for Threads, @threadapp, so far has one post.

“You found us! If you’ve used Instagram, parts of this app probably feel familiar,” it reads, making no mention of a more similar service. “We’re here to foster a positive and creative space for you to express your ideas. This time, it’s all about conversation.”

Much like the early days of Instagram, at this point there is no browser version of the social media platform. ‘Threads.net’ simply hosts an interactive deconstruction of its logo, with a QR code to download the app.

Twitter troubles

Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022 and ever since the company has been battling controversies. In November it introduced a fee for verification and let go of the majority of its workforce, reportedly dropping from 7500 employees to less than 2900.

Recently, new limits on the amount of Tweets a user can see each day were introduced that give premium users 10,000 and regular users only 1000, and Tweets became inaccessible for those without an account.

It could be the final straw for advertisers, and users are fed up with the inconsistency. ‘Delete Twitter’ searches skyrocketed.

An empire with sights set on monopoly

Threads is not the first platform to try and capitalise on the instability at Twitter. Mastodon launched in 2016 and was well positioned to attract former tweeters as they fled last year, but after a promising start it failed to sustain momentum and in 2023 its user base has even contracted.

So why is Threads any different? Well if there’s any company capable of supplanting the competition it’s Meta.

In its early days Facebook took on MySpace and won, before spending big to fend off its own challengers through major acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. In recent years it has taken to integrating features of other social media sites into its own platforms.