🐦 You Still Call It Twitter? Why The 'X' Rebrand Failed.

What You Need To Know From The Industry

• Google releases October 2023 Core Update. (Scroll for more info.)

• Meta announces a range of AI tools for users and businesses across their range of apps and devices. This includes AI stickers, AI image editing and a cast of 28 celebrity-inspired AI characters to interact with.

• TikTok looks to expand in-app shopping by partnering with CommerceHub. Creators can now sell products directly through in-feed videos, live streams and the product showcase tab.

• Canva turns 10, and releases flagship AI-powered design tools under the portfolio name, Magic Studio.

• ChatGPT’s revenue is growing, but its growth is slowing latest figures suggest.

You Still Call It Twitter? Why The ‘X‘ Rebrand Failed.

It’s been 81 days since Twitter’s abrupt rebrand to X came out of the blue. But the majority of users are still determined to call it Twitter. Let’s get you up to date.

The headlines for Twitter started to turn sour when Musk was looking to purchase the platform, signing off on a deal worth $44 billion. After signing the deal, the tone changes, with Musk going on to accuse the then-current owners of covering up the volume of bot and spam accounts on the site.

Was this a negotiation tactic, or a genuine concern of a shady tactic from Twitter to inflate their sale price - we’re still not sure.

Unable to resolve bot-gate. Twitter took action to sue Musk for $44 billion - the value of the deal he had previously signed off on. They stated that Musk’s intention was to damage the Twitter brand and escape the contract he freely signed.

Musk then counter-sues Twitter for fraudulent behaviour - which they deny.

Ultimately this delayed the whole takeover process. With the court giving the two parties more time to hammer out their issues.

On the 28th of October 2022, Musk completed the acquisition - before going on to fire many key executives and lay off half the workforce. Some remaining staff walked out. There are hard feelings on both sides. But Twitter is his.

After a week of turmoil, advertisers announced that they were staying away from the platform due to his management style and lack of content moderation on the platform after content moderation staff walked out or were fired.

Musk went on to reveal that ad revenue was down 59% along with the the platform being cashflow negative.

Then the rebrand is announced.

On the 23rd of July 2023, after 17 years of being known as Twitter, Musk announced he is rebranding his newly acquired platform to ‘X‘.

The rebrand raised eyebrows. Why ‘X’? Because it is Elon’s favourite letter.

Seeking to weigh in on an opportunity for disgruntled users, Meta jumps in with Threads, a direct competitor of the platform. Musk looks to sue the platform for poaching staff he had previously laid off.

After 17 years of Twitter building one of the strongest brands of any platform worldwide, it was gone overnight. But its effects are greater than personal opinion.

So what has happened since the rebrand?

According to Apptopia (via Business Insider), downloads for X have been down by 30% across most major markets since the rebrand. Downloads haven’t been this low for Twitter since 2017, most likely due to a lack of discoverability with the new name. Further to this, the app has fewer users who open the app on a regular basis.

Now with September 2023 behind us, the second full month since the rebrand, new problems are emerging for the platform. Following the decline in downloads, the platform’s revenue is being hit. Estimates show that net monthly revenue was down by almost a million dollars to $4.8m. Is this the knock-on effect of a decline in discoverability and downloads? I’ll let you decide.

This will all come as a blow to Musk, who set the ambitious goal of hitting 1 billion monthly users by 2024.

But rebrands can be successful - so why has this failed?

There are a few factors to consider. But for starters the rebrand announcement was amateurish and its launch was poorly calculated, leaving more questions than answers.

Prior to that, the toxicity of the events leading up to the takeover, and the actions taken since have made both users and advertisers feel particularly uneasy. X is now so closely tied to Elon Musk and his personal brand, dividing many of its users.

The reality is that this rebrand has cost X both time and money, which are two of the most valuable resources a business has. The truth is that it couldn’t afford to waste either of them.

The Outpost’s Opinion: The platform persists. X is the future for what was once a little blue bird. The new brand plays a part in the bigger picture of making an all-encompassing platform, similar to WeChat in China. To have real success they need to tempt users back with new features and demonstrate to advertisers that their site is a safe space for their brand to appear. Without these, X will always be a failed Twitter.

Google Core Update

We’ve been speculating that Google will crack down on AI content. Is this update part of it? Well… yes, we think so.

This latest update started on October 5th and is expected to take a few weeks to be fully rolled out.

So what do we know? Well for starters, this comes only four weeks after last month’s Helpful Content Update finished rolling out. There is also a spam update currently being rolled out alongside the current core update.

We also know that with the rapid rise of AI content flooding Google, there is a big drive from the tech giant to limit false and unverified information circulating. Google aims to tackle this by enhancing its systems to better detect generic AI content while putting greater emphasis on E-E-A-T content.

However, it’s not all bad news for AI. Google has released search guidance for AI content and recognises that there is a place for AI in content generation. Specifically authoritative AI content which demonstrates expert insight and involvement will be able to successfully rank and do well.

Google releases several core updates every year, so this is nothing new and is part of Google’s continuous improvement plan.

Just be reassured that SEO is an ongoing effort, not a tick-box exercise. We’ll be looking at how the dust settles in the search landscape in a few weeks when this update stops rolling out.

If your site has been hit, you can read the Google guides for your website and the impact of the core update.

Let’s just hope that’s it for this year on the core updates front, ay?

The Outpost’s Opinion: Google are keeping us on our toes. Remember to focus on E-E-A-T and user experience. Most importantly, be patient. As the Google systems respond to the update, the website and online stores will be hit. Ride out the storm - you’re in it for the long game.