Tag: Mass Layoffs

Highlights * Twitter is being rebranded. * It will now be called X. * Elon Musk has been pondering over the idea for quite some time. * X.com already redirects to Twitter. * Musk says he will replace the Twitter bird logo with an interim X logo in the coming hours. * Linda Yaccarino, Twitter CEO, also expressed her excitement about the Twitter rebranding. Elon Musk has officially confirmed Twitter is rebranding to X. The new name highlights the billionaire entrepreneur’s ambition of taking the platform beyond social media and turning it into an everything app. He further revealed Twitter’s iconic bird logo will also get replaced with an interim “X” logo in the coming hours. Twitter users in India woke up to a mysterious tweet by Elon Musk on Sunday morning. The billionaire asked people to prepare to say goodbye to the beloved Twitter logo and gradually, ‘all the birds’ as a rebranding of the micro-blogging was going to take place soon. Even though such a move came out of the blue, it surely wasn’t unexpected as rumours of Musk planning a full rebrand of Twitter had been floating on the internet for quite some time. Twitter’s rebranding into X has already begun, and the social media site’s official handle no longer has changed its display name to ‘X’. The iconic blue bird logo in the profile picture has also been replaced by X and the handle’s bio has also been tweaked. With X, Musk is hoping to create a super app of sorts that can do a lot more than merely being a social media platform for interactions. Bunch of Things Talking about rebranding Twitter, Musk wrote in a tweet on Sunday, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” In another tweet, he added that if they are able to find a good enough logo, it will be made live soon. And looks like the team did find a good logo as Musk pinned a video of the X logo on his Twitter profile. Later, he changed his profile picture to display the logo. Twitter CEO Yaccarino also shared a picture of the logo and wrote, “X is here! Let’s do this.” In a separate tweet, Musk added that the domain X.com will now redirect users to Twitter. And indeed, if you type X.com on your web browser, the Twitter website will load. This makes us wonder if the domain Twitter.com will cease to exist in future and be replaced by X.com. Even Twitter’s official handle is no longer known by the blue bird. The X logo has replaced the bird and the handle’s display name also says X. The bio reads, ‘What’s happening?’ In April this year, a document submitted in a court in California hinted that Twitter no longer exists as an independent entity. Linda Yaccarino The company had been merged into X Corp. "Twitter Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists. X Corp. is a privately held corporation, incorporated in Nevada, and with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California," the document read. The merger was submitted on March 15 and according to the filings, Musk is the president of the company as well as of its parent, X Holdings Corp, that was created in March as well. The name X.com reportedly has a nostalgic connection for Musk. As per an Insider report, X.com was an online banking company that Musk had started back in 1990. The company was eventually merged with Confinity, a financial startup cofounded by Peter Thiel, to form PayPal. Even though Musk was the CEO of the newly-formed PayPal, he was fired by the board while he was on a vacation in Australia. Thiel became the new CEO. A Forbes report had said that the reason behind Musk’s firing was that he had started a huge fight amongst the co-founders of PayPal over shifting their servers from the Unix operating system to Microsoft’s Windows. Musk has time and again expressed his desire about creating an 'everything' app, X, that can emerge as a go-to app for various needs of the user. Shortly after buying Twitter, he had written on the micro-blogging site, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” bunch of things As per a New York Times report that dates back to October 2022, Musk had revealed plans of a new product called X and aimed that it would have 104 million users by 2028. Other reports revealed that Musk had earlier said that he could be inspired by China’s WeChat. A Business Insider report quoted Musk saying in May that WeChat can do everything and combines apps like Twitter, PayPal, and a ‘bunch of things’ into one (app). “It's really an excellent app, and we don't have anything like that outside of China,” he had added. In 2020, Musk had appreciated the idea from a Tesla investor to create a holding company called X for his various ventures. One of the world’s richest men, Musk was once best known for his innovative efforts through companies SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) to launch rockets and build electric cars. Elon Musk Now, many of the headlines he makes are for his eccentric remarks on his personal Twitter account – often sharing conspiracy theories and getting into public spats on the social media platform. Musk overhauled the site after acquiring it for $44 billion in late October, then followed with mass layoffs, disputes over millions of dollars allegedly owed in severance and Musk’s note to employees that remaining at the company would mean “working long hours at high intensity.” He wrote: “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” The upheaval prompted organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, Free Press and GLAAD, to pressure brands to rethink advertising on Twitter. The groups pointed to the mass layoffs as a key factor in their thinking, citing fears that Musk’s cuts would make Twitter’s election-integrity policies effectively unenforceable, even if they technically remain active. Musk also began overseeing controversial policy changes which led to frequent service disruptions at Twitter and upended his own reputation in the process. X Is Live Now In June, Musk named Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal marketing executive, CEO of the company. She commented on the name change on Twitter Sunday afternoon: “It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.” As the new venture begins, it faces challenges. Musk recently disclosed that the platform still has a negative cash flow due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt loads. Criticizing the exit, or pause, of such Twitter advertisers as General Mills (GIS), Macy’s (M) and some car companies that compete with Tesla, Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and said he wanted to buy Twitter to bolster users’ ability to speak freely on the platform. Musk explained his approach to free speech by saying: “Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech.” He added that Twitter would “be very reluctant to delete things” and that the platform would aim to allow all legal speech. Many users have worried that could mean a rise in hate speech. Meanwhile, the initial frenzy around rival Threads appears to have come back to earth, especially as it has been plagued with spam and lacks several user-friendly features Twitter, or, now X, offers. Elon Musk said he'd rebrand Twitter's logo to X Adam Mosseri, who is overseeing the Threads launch for Meta, has hinted at plans to add features such as a desktop version of the app, a feed of only accounts a user follows and an edit button. Its ability to draw advertising support is, as yet, unproven. Twitter is also working towards generating more revenue and turning profitable. It is the reason it is aggressively pushing the Blue subscription by introducing more and more paid features. It is even adding existing free Twitter features behind the paywall like limiting DMs unless you pay. Twitter Rebrand Reaction Tweets Faqs 1) Twitter rebrands to 'X' as Elon Musk loses iconic bird logo.Details? Ans) Twitter has officially rebranded to "X" after owner Elon Musk changed its iconic bird logo on Monday, marking the latest major shift since his takeover of the social media platform. The website Twitter.com remained live and branding on the app version of the platform did not appear to change as of early Monday morning. Twitter’s world-renowned bird logo was transformed into an X, however. Early Sunday, Musk posted a short video of a flickering "X." Asked if the logo would change in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, he said "yes," telling an unknown speaker: “We’re cutting the Twitter logo off the building with blow torches." Early Monday Musk tweeted an image of the X branding beamed across Twitter's headquarters. Musk tweeted Sunday that the idea of changing the logo to “X” was to “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.” “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he wrote. By Sunday afternoon the web address x.com was already redirecting to what was once Twitter. The domain returned to Musk in 2017 after it was relinquished under the merger that became PayPal. 2) What are the Spats & mass layoffs done by Elon Musk ? Ans) One of the world’s richest men, Musk was once best known for his innovative efforts through companies SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA) to launch rockets and build electric cars. Now, many of the headlines he makes are for his eccentric remarks on his personal Twitter account – often sharing conspiracy theories and getting into public spats on the social media platform. Musk overhauled the site after acquiring it for $44 billion in late October, then followed with mass layoffs, disputes over millions of dollars allegedly owed in severance and Musk’s note to employees that remaining at the company would mean “working long hours at high intensity.” He wrote: “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” The upheaval prompted organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, Free Press and GLAAD, to pressure brands to rethink advertising on Twitter. The groups pointed to the mass layoffs as a key factor in their thinking, citing fears that Musk’s cuts would make Twitter’s election-integrity policies effectively unenforceable, even if they technically remain active. Musk also began overseeing controversial policy changes which led to frequent service disruptions at Twitter and upended his own reputation in the process. 3) ‘A second chance’ -By Elon Musk .Details? Ans) In June, Musk named Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal marketing executive, CEO of the company. She commented on the name change on Twitter Sunday afternoon: “It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.” As the new venture begins, it faces challenges. Musk recently disclosed that the platform still has a negative cash flow due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt loads. Criticizing the exit, or pause, of such Twitter advertisers as General Mills (GIS), Macy’s (M) and some car companies that compete with Tesla, Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and said he wanted to buy Twitter to bolster users’ ability to speak freely on the platform. Musk explained his approach to free speech by saying: “Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech.” He added that Twitter would “be very reluctant to delete things” and that the platform would aim to allow all legal speech. Many users have worried that could mean a rise in hate speech. Meanwhile, the initial frenzy around rival Threads appears to have come back to earth, especially as it has been plagued with spam and lacks several user-friendly features Twitter, or, now X, offers. Adam Mosseri, who is overseeing the Threads launch for Meta, has hinted at plans to add features such as a desktop version of the app, a feed of only accounts a user follows and an edit button. Its ability to draw advertising support is, as yet, unproven. 4) Twitter Will Soon Be X.Details Ans) Elon Musk revealed Twitter’s rebranding process is underway through a series of tweets. His first tweet came yesterday morning when he said, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” Soon after, he added, “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.” Musk first teased the new Twitter logo through a tweet and he also made it his profile picture. The same logo has now been confirmed officially as the new Twitter identity by the company CEO Linda Yaccarino. Even Twitter’s account name is changed to “X” but the username continues to be “Twitter”. He spent the whole day tweeting with messages referencing Twitter’s rebrand to X. He revealed that X.com now redirects to Twitter and tweets will soon be known as simply “X”. The choice of the name is not surprising as Musk established “X Corp.” earlier this year and made it the parent company of Twitter. It is also the name you see as the developer on the App Store and Play Store when you search for the app. Musk’s affection for the letter “X’ goes way back to his early days in the world of entrepreneurship. PayPal was originally called X.com and his spacecraft engineering company is called SpaceX. He also launched a car model under Tesla’s lineup called Tesla Model X. His newest AI company is called “xAI”. Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s new CEO, also expressed her excitement about the rebranding. She said, “Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square. X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.” Her thread about Twitter’s brand overhaul makes it clear that Twitter is set to become the platform for everything. It is also evident from the recent feature rollouts and changes from the company. Twitter has begun testing posting job vacancies on the platform that will help verified organizations hire talent. It is also exploring the option of letting anyone post long-form articles with in-line images directly through the app. Twitter is also working towards generating more revenue and turning profitable. It is the reason it is aggressively pushing the Blue subscription by introducing more and more paid features. It is even adding existing free Twitter features behind the paywall like limiting DMs unless you pay. 5) Elon Musk History : Everything You Need to know why Rebranding X ? Ans) One of Musk's first ventures was known as X.com, first launched by Musk as an online banking and financial services platform in 1999. A year later, he was forced to step down from his role as CEO of the firm. 'Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company that back then because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it,' said Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, about the X.com domain, according to NPR. Three years later, he made $165 million when the site, by then merged with PayPal, was bought by eBay. Musk would later buy the domain X.com back from PayPal in 2017. That site now directs people to Twitter. 'Thanks PayPal for allowing me to buy back X.com! No plans right now, but it has great sentimental value to me,' Musk wrote on Twitter in 2017, That domain was Musk's first major use of the letter X, but not his last. Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, which is formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. He founded the company in 2002 and it recently launched its $3 billion - a test flight which was deemed a great success even after it burst into a spectacular ball of flames. SpaceX and even NASA all hailed the mammoth new rocket's maiden flight as 'exciting' and a success. Musk was particularly buoyant in the aftermath — vowing to launch again 'in a few months'. Tesla, where Musk is CEO, sells the Model X, which went on commercial sale in 2016. The car, a mid-sized luxury crossover SUV is recognizable by its falcon doors. 'The idea being that the Tesla models would spell out the word 'sexy,'' said Tim Higgins, the author of Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century. However, Ford owned the right to the Model E, which forced Musk to turn to the Model 3 - which is 'kind of a backwards E,' Higgins noted. Musk also infamously brought the letter into his personal life, giving his son the letter as a nickname. Musk and his former partner, the musician Grimes, raised eyebrows in May 2020 when they revealed the name of their newborn son: X Æ A-12. The billionaire is said to have given the little boy, three, the nickname X for short. Soon after he was named, X Æ A-12 had his name changed to X Æ A-Xii following a violation of California's naming laws around which alphanumeric characters can be used. The name of the couple's second child was later changed to 'Y' from Exa Dark Sideræl Musk. Musk's love life has been the subject of intrigue for years, with the Space X founder going through a series of divorces and high-profile relationships in recent times. The CEO first alluded to some big name changes to Twitter- which has been fighting reduced usership and increased competition in recent months - early Sunday morning, revealing the bird logo would soon be replaced with a plain 'X'. He hinted the symbol came as part of a larger rebrand of the entire platform as he searches for the right design. Of the newly announced logo, which is still in limbo, he claimed: 'Interim X logo goes live later today.' Musk has long wanted to build an 'everything app' similar to the popular WeChat, according to NPR. That app has a strong hold in China, but no US version. 'He wants to create an app similar to how WeChat is used in China, where it's part of the fabric of day-to-day life. You use it to communicate, to consume news, to buy things, to pay your rent, to book appointments with your doctor and even to pay fines,' Vance said. Now, the social-media site Musk purchased for $44 billion appears to be undergoing the changes he first promised in October. 'Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,' Musk said at the time of the purchase. Many thousands of users weighed in Musk's X tease, dropping design suggestions for the new logo, as well as questions behind his reasoning for the new name. Several posters sarcastically joked about what would come of the already widely accepted term 'tweeting' in the revamp's aftermath. 'I am not sure how it will be called now! Post? X-post? Xost?' someone wrote. Another similarly asked: If Twitter rebrands to X then what would we call future 'tweets'?' Someone else sniped: 'So it's not tweet anymore it's what?' Others seemed to poke fun with the famously flippant exec after his announcement, with some sighting the increased pressure he is facing with the recent advent of Meta-owned Threads, and the diminishing market evaluation of his new company. 'ur actually so annoying. genuinely what is the reason,' said one person moments after the announcement - which put a cap on a stream of consciousness style series of tweets from Musk alluding to a large-scale rebrand. 'Get on threads at this point,' someone else added. Musk, in trademark fashion, looked to play along with storm of sarcastic posts, asking his some 149million followers within moments: 'What should we call tweeting?' Several responded in turn with their own self-made verbs to describe the act of posting on the now changing social media site. 'Xweeting,' wrote one; 'Xpressing,' wrote another. Hours earlier, Musk alluded to some smaller but still seminal changes to the platform, with various photos containing some stylized form of the letter x - including a photo of himself crossing his arms. 'And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,' one morning post from Musk read. Another aired shortly after added: 'If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we'll make go live worldwide tomorrow.' He followed up the announcement by offering some creative guidance for potential designers: 'If the X is closest in style to anything, it should, of course, be Art Deco.' He then posted a darkened version of the current Twitter logo and wrote, 'Like this but X.' Eventually, Musk posted a flickering video of an X overtaking the bird and pinned it to the top of his profile. The image was suggested by Sawyer Merritt, the co-founder of a sustainable clothing brand, and designed by Alex Tourville, a physics engineer. It is not clear that the pinned X is the one Musk will use for the company logo moving forward. The site's current logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter's emblem since its creation in 2006, with the current design in use since 2012. According to Twitter's website, Larry is 'our most recognizable asset' and is 'why we're so protective of it.' In April, the site's logo was briefly replaced with a picture of a Shibu Inu dog, which helped boost the market value of Dogecoin, the popular meme coin, by $4billion. That same month, an email was sent to Twitter's business partners informing them that the company had been renamed the X Corp following a merger, but that the short-form social media platform would keep its original name - for now. X Corp may also act as a future parent company for Musk's other businesses: Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company. When the corporate filings became public in April, Musk tweeted a simple 'X' to his millions of followers. It is unclear if, or when Musk will change the name of Twitter. The logo announcement arrives nearly two weeks after the launch of Musk's new artificial intelligence startup, xAI - which is now the sole occupant of Musk's Twitter bio. The startup, to be led by Musk, will aim to provide an alternative to ChatGPT. According to Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the unregulated development of AI, the company will create a 'maximally curious' AI. 'If it tried to understand the true nature of the universe, that's actually the best thing that I can come up with from an AI safety standpoint,' he said. 'I think it is going to be pro-humanity from the standpoint that humanity is just much more interesting than not-humanity.' The logo change would be the latest in a number of changes that have shaken up the company since Musk's takeover. He has previously been criticized for gutting the company of the grand majority of its employees, as well as monetizing the 'verified' blue check status in April. Earlier this month, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta launched its own short-form posting app, called Threads. Mark Zuckerberg said that more than 30million people signed up for the rival service during its first 24 hours. Twitter has threatened to sue the company over allegedly stolen trade secrets.

Tag: Mass Layoffs

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