He’s at it again. The world’s most talked about personality has just announced Twitter’s shattering shift to ‘X, the everything app’. And, as absurd as it sounds, the beloved blue bird no longer tweets.
While excruciating for subscribers, this development comes as somewhat comical news for passive observers struggling to keep up with the serial entrepreneur’s frenetic pace.
Could this move revolutionise the tech industry in it’s vertically integrated philosophy, or will this rebrand falter the legacy of a 15-year old app adored by 450 million users — potentially wiping out billions in brand value?
One thing’s for sure, the critique community is out in force.
X-perimentally exquisite?
Observers have been calling the ‘X’ rebrand an outright mistake and an unnecessary gamble on a hazy future coming from a platform with substantial brand recognition. But futuristically speaking, it might just be the missing piece that completes an existential equation that Musk has been plotting for decades.
The Twitter acquisition, it so appears, may turn out to be an ingenious move to apply what Musk has referred to as his ‘unified field theory’. In the eccentric futurist’s 2015 autobiography, author Ashley Vance explains how Musk’s businesses are all interconnected in the short and long term.
Drawing linkages between Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX, Vance goes on to explain that these entities ‘exchange knowledge around materials, manufacturing techniques, and the intricacies of operating factories that build so much stuff from the ground up’. In other words, a vertically integrated business model that, arguably speaking, no other value chain on Earth is able to match.
In a rather exquisite analogy, the move to ‘X’ draws similarities to Beethoven’s electrifying Third Symphony, ‘Eroica’. In much the same way that the mind-bending symphony shifted into new dimensions and transcended the boundaries of music — introducing the world to a mature composer who would go on to produce a revered repertoire culminating in the 9th symphony — Musk has composed and arranged a high-tech orchestra of innovation streams, now bundled into ‘X’, that could go on to incrementally redefine our future sentience.
Musk’s journey to X
In his quest to unify a plethora of technology offerings into one app ecosystem, the billionaire space enthusiast will now be rivalling Alphabet, Apple and Meta. This power play could finally unleash an open source laboratory full of life altering gadgets galore.
With comparisons to WeChat (a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app), ‘X’ is envisioned by Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s chief executive, to be the ‘future state of unlimited interactivity — centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities’.
Acquiring a host entity in the form of Twitter, that has amassed significant reputational longevity, and using it as a platform to combine an abundant array of product offerings will likely accelerate Musk’s all-in-one vision to create the everything app.
A rash & risky move?
But what about the ramifications of disrupting a social media giant? An action viewed by many to be an existential threat for the company, and will surely disrupt user sentiment.
In firing about three-fourths of Twitter’s workforce over the past year, scaring off advertisers and frustrating longtime users with policy decisions, it is unknown how the general public will ultimately embrace this abrupt change.
Another concern is the legal complications that will inevitably unfold as a result of infringements on intellectual property rights. Meta, Microsoft, Google and many other companies own trademarks related to the letter ‘X’ which may see the company fighting a further litany of lawsuits.
The brashness of Musk’s decisions of late is a major worry for investors and is certainly not winning the hearts and minds of industry critics. As marketing columnist, Mark Ritson aptly expresses: ‘He is making these decisions alone. Running naked through the night. Fuelled by ego and a trenchant desire to make his mistaken acquisition a success.’
Time will tell whether this move pays off from a market diversification perspective. But Musk needs to take caution with his erratic leadership style. This could very well land him in deep water.
Primed for Web3 & societal progress?
While critique abounds about the abruptness and rationale of the rebrand, optimism can be found in Musk’s approach to open-sourcing Twitter’s recommendation algorithm as well as crowdsourcing the ‘X’ logo.
How robust the contest methodology was remains debatable, but such efforts of cumulative idea generation could play in favour of the rebrand’s justification to iterate based on open innovation — the very concept Musk has endeavoured throughout his Beethovenesque tech journey.
As the disruptive visionary continues to assemble his symphony of innovation streams — from clean energy and advanced aircraft, to satellites, generative AI, neurotechnology, FinTech and intra-city transit systems — consumers can expect an evolving, holistically immersive user experience that brings us closer to Web3 and the promise of advanced sentience.
However, with such widespread domination stirs a worrying sense of tech totalitarianism. Mere mortals can only wait and hope that Musk’s ambitions are carried out for prosocial gain.
Published via LinkedIn
