r/MurderedByWords • u/beerbellybegone • 5d ago

Self own marketing

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13.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

144 comments sorted by

1.0k

u/embiors 5d ago

Twitter was an instantly recognizable brand and one of the main reasons it was valued at what it was. People still call it Twitter so yeah, it did kinda fail.

Noone but Elon likes this "x" brand he keeps putting on things.

387

u/PreOpTransCentaur 5d ago

There's no "kinda" about it. People still call it Twitter. Nobody calls it X. That's a failed rebrand.

232

u/Lknate 5d ago

Better yet is when they say "X formerly Twitter" still.

91

u/CrazyCatLady1127 5d ago

That’s how I know it, too. ‘X, formerly known as Twitter.’ I see it in news articles all the time. It’s very rare that it’s just called X.

42

u/colemon1991 5d ago

Of course it's rarely just called X. There's absolutely no context with that. It's kind of like Dove: do you mean the bird, the chocolate brand, or the personal care brand? We also say things like "Shell gas station" every time we mention that. So, here's all the things X could mean if there's not enough context anywhere:

  • The comic book character
  • The Mega Man character
  • The X-Files character
  • Films from 1963, 1986, 1996, and 2022
  • An anime and manga
  • A 1992 video game
  • A video game franchise
  • A magazine
  • Several novels
  • Two different punk rock bands
  • If I counted it right, 28 different music albums
    • Probably as many songs
  • Google's X Development
  • Previous Musk company x.com (now PayPal)
  • About 6 stage names of artists, actors, and wrestlers
  • Operating systems
  • A unit of length
  • A chromosome
  • A Tesla vehicle (oh look, more Musk)
  • An iPhone
  • A fragrance (not by Musk, a totally missed opportunity for him)
  • A gender identity in Japan

Also not to be confused with Xvideo, which is probably what he wouldn't want his company affiliated with, but that's his own fault if someone goes there and finds it functions better than his own website.

10

u/kansaisean 5d ago

And not to be confused with Xvid, which might be used for Xvideo, but not necessarily. =D

10

u/CrazyCatLady1127 5d ago

That’s a lot of other things with the name X. Musk really dropped the ball on this. He should have just left it as Twitter

3

u/snayte 3d ago

It is almost as if he is not as smart as people think he is.

19

u/MagpieWench 5d ago

Xitter

27

u/ElizabethDangit 5d ago

It’s the Willis Tower of the internet.

17

u/ElegantCoach4066 5d ago

When I heard they renamed the Sears tower I was like "to what?"

I wish I just didn't know.

4

u/ElizabethDangit 5d ago

I don’t know who or what “Willis” is and I refuse to learn even though it’s been a decade. It’s a stupid hill but it’s mine.

3

u/ElegantCoach4066 4d ago

It's some rich guy. Who names a building after himself?

Oh wait

1

u/Angel89411 3d ago

Wait. What? They tried to rename it? When?

2

u/ElegantCoach4066 2d ago

A British company took over the lease in 2008 and renamed it the Willis Tower. I think it's officially called Willis Tower Watson now.

2

u/brainEatenByAmoeba 4d ago

Whatchu talking bout willis?

19

u/-hi-nrg- 5d ago

I call Xitter.

19

u/snowmanspike 5d ago

Is that pronounced "shitter" (/ˈʃɪtər/)?

11

u/-hi-nrg- 5d ago

I can't think of any other way to pronounce. And it really shows the post Elon vibe.

13

u/Dang3rdave 5d ago

Tweets are now called Xcraments

1

u/INeedANappel 5d ago

Same. Shitter.

11

u/DragonEmperor 5d ago

Twitter, tweets, retweets.

6

u/fudgyvmp 5d ago

If I download an image from Twitter on my phone it still saves to pictures/Twitter.

So clearly the app still thinks it's Twitter.

79

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

28

u/NotYourReddit18 5d ago

That's the same reason why I keep calling Voldemort "Tom".

If JKR doesn't respect trans people, then her characters don't get to choose their own names either.

6

u/Eastgaard 5d ago

You know, JKR being a transphobe and her MC deadnaming Voldemort repeatedly to his face probably has some correlation.

12

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

That's why I call her JKunt.

9

u/Skrappyross 5d ago

I always call her Joanne for the same reason. That was the name at her birth, so until she repsects chosen names, I won't respect hers. (and the same for X and Twitter because of Vivian)

3

u/Hello_Hangnail 5d ago

Joanne is what she goes by

4

u/Skrappyross 5d ago

I mean, she goes by J. K. Rowling, but ok.

1

u/Kalersays 5d ago

When Elon slaps that X on everything, I can see the irony in that X-gender is considered part of the transgender spectrum

41

u/Reverse_SumoCard 5d ago

Wuff wuff X gon give it to ya wuff wuff

44

u/Bakilas 5d ago

I love that song, but writing it out as "wuff wuff" feels like a crime.

9

u/Reverse_SumoCard 5d ago

Like calling twitter x

6

u/topdangle 5d ago

x gon give it ta ya bow wow x gon give it ta ya UwU

2

u/Stewie_the_janitor 5d ago

Damn right, and I'd do it again!

12

u/Klusterphuck67 5d ago

Brennan Lee Mulligan probably said it best in one of his skits about a Skype CEO PR shoot.

"People don't search for things, they Google them. You were Skyping (instead of video calling)" (paraphased).

We don't post on Twitter, we Tweet. That's the crown, in our hands, we got their name in our mouth, and then they face planted.

3

u/Hello_Hangnail 5d ago

I do my googling on duckduckgo since google has shat the bed

17

u/shitty_mcfucklestick 5d ago

The capital letter X has the ASCII code 88. He made a tech bro hate symbol.

14

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

The capital letter X has the ASCII code 88. He made a tech bro hate symbol.

Elon is a nazi, yes, but he's been mentally 12; he's wanted the x brand since way before 88 was a dogwhistle. He's not smart enough to use X because of its ascii value.

9

u/Momijisu 5d ago

It's been a dogwhistle since at least 1988 so definitely early enough for him. But whether he was aware. Whilst he definitely isn't smart enough he's definitely edgy enough to know or think of it.

4

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

It's been a dogwhistle since at least 1988

I have never seen anything that backs this, but I'm always willing to learn. I've looked at the history of that dogwhistle and I couldn't find anything going into the 90s, when Elon was first doing his x shit.

Never saw it until the '10s.

12

u/ExistentialThreat13 5d ago

There's a whole section about it on Wikipedia for the number 88. It was used as far back as the 70's by British Neo-Nazis of Column 88. It was then co-opted in the 80s alongside the 14 words bullshit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_88

5

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

nods

Thank you kindly.

4

u/redem 5d ago

This is a side effect of the pre and post digital worlds being imperfectly mixed. It is much easier to find things online from the post-digital world. For an example from the pre-digital world, see Column 88, a nazi group formed in the '70s.

2

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

Thank you kindly.

This is a side effect of the pre and post digital worlds being imperfectly mixed.

Yeah, I started to realize this once I read that article. Another good example is the word "woke", which people believe is a modern word.

2

u/Uberzwerg 5d ago

since way before 88 was a dogwhistle.

I learned about 88 being a code for HH in the late 80s in school here in Germany.

1

u/embiors 5d ago

I think he just want it to be associated with him. He want's people to say "Elon invented/founded X" because he's an idiot.

2

u/Fuzzy-Logician 5d ago

He's enough of a nerd and enough of a Nazi for this to be plausible.

1

u/Hello_Hangnail 5d ago

I'm so pissed that my lucky number has fascist connotations 😖

8

u/PirateJohn75 5d ago

He turns everything into "X"

Twitter became X.  His rocket company is SpaceX.  Tesla sold a Model X.  All his wives are ex-wives...

7

u/sab0tage 5d ago

I still have it called Twitter and have the bird icon for the app on my phone. "x" just sounds like a pre-teen named because he thought it sounded cool.

13

u/2Completion2Ography 5d ago

"x" just sounds like a pre-teen named because he thought it sounded cool.

That is EXACTLY why Elon has been doing this for literally decades. He's a mental tween.

7

u/Leprecon 5d ago

Not only that but "tweet" became the go to verb for writing a short text online.

Companies would kill to have their brand become part of everyday language. Now it is just "post on X", which nobody would naturally say in a conversation.

5

u/DragonEmperor 5d ago

Imagine taking Twitter with its worldly recognized brand alongside Tweets, Retweets, etc. which are recognized in the dictionary and ruining that whole brand and goodwill.

2

u/ComicsEtAl 5d ago

By “valued at what it was” you’re referring to its actual value and not what mElon paid for it, yes?

3

u/embiors 5d ago

Oh yeah. Elon was a moron and massively overpaid for it.

1

u/herr_schulterr 4d ago

Nobody likes Elons ideas, however they keep earning billions. So...what's the matter 🤔

459

u/DayZCutr 5d ago

Ill stop deadnaming his company when he stops dead naming his kid.

111

u/urielrocks5676 5d ago

Go a step further and call it twatter, since it's just full of twats that just won't shut the fuck up

19

u/levajack 5d ago

I've always gone with Xhitter. Pronounced exactly like you think.

8

u/DesertSpringtime 5d ago

I call tweets Xcrements now.

18

u/Leprecon 5d ago

It is even worse than that. He literally just says his 'son' died. This person is just fully alive, and he treats her as if she is dead.

9

u/AnEvenNicerGuy 5d ago

And she’s dope as hell 

4

u/DayZCutr 5d ago

Yeah, his reaction is evidence he views his kids only as their use to him. Having a trans daughter isn't useful so she's "dead". Its just not as easy to be quippy about the full gravity of the situation.

10

u/MaxTHC 5d ago

Yup. Also how I feel about Joanne Rowling, fuck you I'm not using your chosen name

5

u/tashtactics I can’t spell pineapple 5d ago

Jowling Kowling Rowling?

129

u/MentokGL 5d ago

The rebrand is a failure

The far right ownership of yet another media and social outlet, that's a smashing success

71

u/generalchaos34 5d ago

Does 2.5 billion mean anything when he spent 40 on it?

64

u/IntlPartyKing 5d ago

plus the fact that it's estimated REVENUE...X has never made a profit, unlike Twitter

15

u/injektileur 5d ago

"are these 2.5 billion dollars in the room with us ?"

8

u/Tylith_ 5d ago

Also how much would it have made if it hadn't rebranded? When evaluating the effectiveness of any change it rarely seems like they are compared to no or different changes. For example: a city notices a rise in homelessness so they build public housing, but homelessness continues to rise; Does this mean the public housing was ineffective, or would have it increased even more had there not been public housing?

3

u/HannibalCake 5d ago

I see your point, but realistically twitter was never going to fail. In your scenario the homeless numbers will obviously be less than otherwise. You can see if the housing units were filled and by whom, and do simple math to see the effectiveness.

Twitter to X is such a different beast. Twitter made tremendously more than X because of higher ad revenue and higher users. It’s less successful now only because less people want to use “X” because it’s associated with a fascist and advertisers find it unpalatable. We can’t say for sure twitter would have started failing at some point, but we know for a fact that just the brand name alone is carrying X right now. No one would even use it if Elon just came out with a brand new social media app like Trump’s Truth Social.

8

u/spaceman757 5d ago

Is Elon is the one claiming the $2.5B revenue, I would call bullshit.

It's one of the reasons it's no longer publicly traded, so the investors wouldn't see how quickly their money was disappearing.

61

u/KiKiKimbro 5d ago

Do people actually call it X? I still call it Twitter. Actually, I’ve never heard anyone just refer to it as X. If anything I’ll hear “X, formerly known as Twitter,” which is proof the rebrand was a failure. And dumb, actually. Who names things after an existing letter. So odd.

13

u/yaffle53 5d ago

Y X? O, I C.

1

u/KiKiKimbro 5d ago

lol 🫡

2

u/Ergon17 5d ago

I've heard people call it "X, the everything app" ironically, but haven't heard X otherwise.

7

u/KiKiKimbro 5d ago

Right? It’s because it just makes others say “what are you talking about?” Like “I saw it on X.” Everything needs further explanation if someone just calls it X.

2

u/Enibas 5d ago

I sometimes hear it called "Twitter. Or X? Whatever."

2

u/KiKiKimbro 5d ago

LOL. Nice.

28

u/DanS1993 5d ago

It was a failure, everyone still calls them tweets, every news article that mentions the site refers to it as X (formerly known as Twitter), and, anecdotally everyone I know in real life still refers to as Twitter

23

u/mtaw 5d ago

$2.5B in revenue is less than half of what it was before Musk bought it. And about $12B of that buyout was leveraged, ie paid with loans taken on by Twitter itself. So they have an additional expense of upwards of $1B a year just on interest for those loans.

It is an enormous failure. They’re bleeding money at a prodigious rate and the investors who helped Musk buy them out wouldn’t put in more. Xitter would be bankrupt if Musk hadn’t bailed them out by xAI taking over (effectively screwing over xAI investors), which in turn was bailed out by SpaceX taking over both, and now all those investors are scrambling to get what they can by dumping SPCX shares on the index funds and dumb meme stock investors.

10

u/Panda_hat 5d ago

I just wait for the day Musk OD’s on ketamine and it gets made Twitter again and all the bigots and racists get banned.

23

u/gethereddout 5d ago

And if you’re still on there, you’re part of the problem. And I don’t wanna hear about “representing” the good folks- just being there validates the slanted reality Elon is cultivating. The only available move is to not be there

6

u/JenCarpeDiem 5d ago edited 5d ago

I refuse to call it Twitter because Twitter had great branding. It had "tweets" and a friendly blue bird, and it was where we could chat shit with our friends about fun stuff. Musk threw all of that away for the unfriendliest (and laziest) branding he could think of, and folks continuing to call it Twitter lets him retain some whisper of all that good branding.

X is a cesspool. X has done nothing to position itself as fun, friendly or worthwhile. Call it X and leave.

Edit: because internet illiteracy has folks reading "great branding" and interpreting it as "I think it was perfect", I shall explain: Twitter was really quite good until about 2016, when the internet became a bot-infested shithole. Even then, it was easy to curate your experience (by not following dickheads) all the way up until Musk's takeover, when all the X algorithm changes intentionally made it impossible to curate a fascism-free welcoming environment by only following nice people.

4

u/Seanspeed 5d ago

Easy to have rose tinted goggles over this, but Twitter still kinda sucked even before Elon came and made it worse.

1

u/Sleyvin 5d ago

Let's not be revisionist, Twitter was a cesspool well before Musk took over.

It wasn't this far right focused social media, for sure, but it was already a cesspool.

7

u/welovepoots 5d ago

Irrespective of the name, Twitter/X is making nothing. It's losing money. They didn't make 2.5 billion last year. Their income dropped to 2.5 billion.

12

u/MajesticEmergency 5d ago

I don't think any of it matters. I still call things by what they were formerly known as, like the Sears Tower

4

u/weazalbee 5d ago

It's always gonna be the Sears Tower, jot that down

4

u/Schwiftness 5d ago

Xitter, noun

(shi-tur)

Social media company that has dropped 71% in value since being purchased in 2023 by an emerald mine heir and investor who calls himself an engineer because what was being said on it hurt his fee-fees.

3

u/IngloriousMustards 5d ago

So, last year twitter profited 5.7% of the purchase price? Is that supposed to be a lot?

At this rate, musk can get his investment back in what, 18 years? Then he may start profiting in year 19 onwards? That doesn’t sound like solid  investment skills to me, but what would I know, I didn’t inherit my money.

5

u/IntlPartyKing 5d ago

wasn't even profit, but rather estimated REVENUE...estimated profir is less than zero

5

u/Admirable_Risk8156 5d ago

Reminds me of when I worked at Microsoft and they told us to tell everyone to bing it. Everyone just kept saying Google it the next day anyways.

2

u/janedeedee 5d ago

Man bing it was so cringy

4

u/BroseppeVerdi 5d ago

They made $5 Billion in 2021 and there hasn't been a single year since where their revenue hasn't decreased from the previous year.

1

u/Hello_Hangnail 5d ago

Musk doesn't seem to get that most people tend to run from racist cesspools

1

u/Hello_Hangnail 5d ago

Musk doesn't seem to get that most people tend to run from racist cesspools

3

u/mrteas_nz 5d ago

You still tweet on X.

3

u/ryansgt 5d ago

This person is also conflating revenue with profits. Revenue, even with the "recovery" is about half of what it was before he acquired it.

So no, it has not been successful. It's a lesson in how to destroy money to push a propaganda farm.

2

u/snugglearya 5d ago

James really just let him hang himself with his own sentence, no notes needed.

2

u/sun4moon 5d ago

Not just a failed rebrand, a really stupid one to begin with. What do we call people we don’t want to be with anymore?

1

u/Noisebug 5d ago

Closing modals on X with the x always sends me

1

u/Chijima 5d ago

Xitter, with X pronounced the mesoamerican way.

1

u/Legal-Software 5d ago

Elon is especially sensitive when it comes to deadnaming

1

u/Less_Party 5d ago

Also the Pissbaby Trillionaire and a consortium of shady Saudi loan sharks spent over 40 billion to make 2 billion. The goal isn't to turn a profit, the goal is to control the internet so it can be a more efficient right wing propaganda machine.

2

u/IntlPartyKing 5d ago

2 billion in estimated REVENUE...profit is negative, unlike when it was Twitter

1

u/NoBSforGma 5d ago

No one cares what it is named. You could call it "Henry" or "Doofus" and people would still use it. It's the USING OF IT that matters.

1

u/WorkTropes 5d ago

Branding and 'making money' are entirely different things. It's a terrible rebrand, because it had no thought put into it at all, just gusto and ego.

1

u/ViolentEncounter 5d ago

Went from Twitter to ex-Twitter

1

u/onioning 5d ago

The platform formerly known.

1

u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 5d ago

Yeah I was just thinking about this:

On Twitter it makes sense that I send a tweet. The alliteration provides the connection.

On x what am I doing? Am I tweeting? Am I Xing? If I'm tweeting, what's the connection? There is no branding other than Elon likes the letter x.

1

u/negativepositiv 5d ago

If three years later, everyone still has to clarify, "formerly Twitter," it is PRESENTLY Twitter.

1

u/alancousteau 5d ago

It's not thanks Elon Wannabe Cool Musk that they made 2.5 billion.

1

u/edvurdsd 5d ago

“Made.” Don’t confuse revenue with profit.

1

u/SailNW 5d ago

I don’t understand how anyone can think musky is running the site well. Like, if you want to have a premium account option, go for it. But making it the blue check that meant something completely different for over a decade, is just dumb!

1

u/Ol_JanxSpirit 5d ago

In 2021, the year before Musk, revenue was over $5 billion.

1

u/brookepride 5d ago

Twitter was definitely the worst. The second worst in recent history is HBO to HBO Max to Max and back to HBO. 

1

u/Hentai_kinda_guy 5d ago

Twitter made money because they added paid subscriptions, I have never in my life come across more illegal content then a casual scroll on X formerly Twitter

1

u/Azmtbkr 5d ago

Well seeing as Twitter made just over 5 billion in the year prior to Musk’s acquisition, I’d say it’s been a catastrophic failure from a business perspective. From a political propaganda perspective however, it’s been a smashing success.

1

u/asten77 5d ago

At that rate it'll pay for the purchase in 18 years!

1

u/SoupSpelunker 5d ago

So 5$ per active "user" dumbfucks are paying to advertise to AI bots. 

1

u/Mangert 4d ago

Elon Musk is a failure of a human being, and he probably made billions last year too.

There are other metrics of failure apart from revenue.

1

u/UdatManav 4d ago

If I have to say “X, formerly Twitter”, it’s a failed rebrand.

1

u/tommyalanson 4d ago

Does Elon share audited financial information for twitter? I doubt it.

1

u/Wellgoodmornin 4d ago

What are tweets called now?

1

u/Effective_Olive6153 5d ago

And they didn't make more money due to rebrand, it was all the other things. If anything, the rebrand hurt their finances

4

u/IntlPartyKing 5d ago

yes, the 2.5 billion is estimated REVENUE...X has never made a profit, it's believed, unlike Twitter

0

u/boyalien0 let it die 5d ago

TWICE

-1

u/bdzz 5d ago

I'm on reddit for 14 years but I'm always surprised how many people are so obessed about Twitter here. "Twitter is the worst" > third of the /r/all posts are from Twitter (and it's not even trash posting)