Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Twitter, unveiled a new logo for the social networking platform today, Monday, containing a white X on a black background as an alternative to the familiar blue bird symbol.
Yaccarino, who also posted an image of the logo displayed on the company's San Francisco offices, tweeted: "X is here to do this."
X is here! Let’s do this. pic.twitter.com/1VqEPlLchj
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 24, 2023
Yaccarino and Musk's Twitter accounts feature the X logo, though the blue Twitter bird is still visible across the platform.
Musk said in a post on Sunday that he wanted to change the Twitter logo and polled millions of followers on whether they would prefer to change the site's color scheme from blue to black.
Although it may not come as a shock, Elon Musk's announcement of renaming Twitter as the "X" application may be strange, some may think that it is a fairly new idea but it actually dates back to 1999, and here we explain the origins of "X", what companies it is now part of and other details.
When did the idea for "X" come about?
In a tweet, author Walter Isaacson put some excerpts from his upcoming book about Musk. According to Isaacson, Musk registered X.com in 1999, but it was meant to be more than just a one-stop-shop for individuals' financial needs, as it would be a one-stop-shop for everything for all financial needs: banking, digital purchases, checking, credit cards, investments, and loans.
Transactions would be processed instantly, without waiting for payments to be settled. His vision was that money was just an entry into a database, and he wanted to devise a way in which all transactions would be securely recorded in real time,” Isaacson wrote, which was converted to the name Paypal, which Musk co-founded.
According to multiple reports, Musk bought Domain X.com in 2017.
What is X Group of Companies?
At first, the X group of companies - or X Corp - owned SpaceX and Neuralink, then Tesla became part of it as well. Finally, in April 2023, Musk announced that Twitter no longer exists as an independent company and was part of X Corp.
SpaceX is a private space exploration company founded by Musk. The company's goal is to make space travel more affordable and accessible. SpaceX has developed a number of innovative technologies, including reusable rockets and the Dragon spacecraft.
Then there is Neuralink. Neuralink is a neurotechnology company that Musk founded in 2016. The company wants to develop brain-computer interfaces that can allow people with disabilities to control devices with their minds. Neuralink has made progress in developing implantable brain chips that could one day be used to treat neurological disorders or even allow people to integrate with artificial intelligence.
And of course, there's Twitter, now officially known as X. In fact, Musk also revealed that the X.com URL will take you to Twitter.com. Musk spent much of his day tweeting about Twitter as X, what the new logo would be, and whether he should change Twitter's color theme from blue to black.
The original Twitter logo was designed in 2012 by a team of three. Martin Graser, one of the designers, tweeted: “The logo was designed to be simple, balanced and legible at very small sizes, almost like a small 'e'.
Weeks before completing the Twitter acquisition last year, Musk said that buying the company would accelerate his ambition to create an "everything app" called X by three to five years.
Musk bought x back from PayPal in 2017, saying it had "sentimental value." Musk co-founded x as an online bank in 1999, which later morphed into PayPal.
While the platform's official Twitter page has been renamed "X," the domain is inactive.