TWITTER’S REBRANDING: DISRUPTION OR DESTRUCTION?

Image Credits: Adryan Samuel Hutagalung / Shutterstock

Twitter has officially been rebranded to X as owner Elon Musk announced last week. The iconic blue bird logo has been removed and an interim X logo has now taken over the platform. The X.com site domain was faced with multiple legal concerns including being banned as a porn and gambling site in Indonesia. The platform domain has now reverted to twitter.com, but worldwide visits to the site have dropped by 9.43% year-on-year in June.

The sudden rebranding of Twitter to X has destroyed the brand’s ethos and tradition, alienating core users of the platform. Without a clear and tangible change to X, users are not seeing the value of the new brand at the moment.

In Singapore, Twitter’s monthly active users are at 32% of total Internet users, falling behind LinkedIn at 37.9%. Twitter has lost its charm amongst Singaporeans in the past years as newer and more visual-led platforms like Instagram and TikTok have emerged. When asked to choose their favourite social media platforms, only 1.5% of Singaporeans chose Twitter, leaving it last on the rankings.

While Twitter (or X) is not as popular in Singapore, Meta’s new platform, Threads, is a close competitor that has sparked interest among Singaporeans. With access to the Instagram user network, Threads seems to have a better chance at gaining critical mass in Singapore.

For brands wondering if it is worth adding either one to their arsenal of social platforms, it would be wise to wait for platform features and usage patterns to stabilise before diving into them.

One thing that’s in the news in Singapore: