Twitter's Name Change Has Led to Huge Decrease in App Store Downloads

[JoelR]

Elon Musk's Twitter takeover has come with a lot of changes, but his rebranding of the platform to "X" may be the final nail in the coffin of the once-beloved tech titan.

Though Musk announced that Twitter would be renamed "X" on Jul. 23, it wasn't until Jul. 31 that the change to "X" went live on Apple's App Store. That change had an immediate effect on how many people download the app, according to an analysis from media strategist Eric Seufert.

Seufert looked at Twitter/ X's ranking on the Apple App Store's "Top Downloaded" chart from Jul. 27 to Aug. 15 and found that the app's average ranking fell significantly after the rebranding, from 35 to 54.

"My hypothesis is that, while the terminally-online are entirely aware of Twitter's rebrand to X, most consumers aren't," Seufert wrote in a post that accompanied his findings, "and their searches for 'Twitter' on platform stores surface ads and genuine search results that are in no way redolent of Twitter."

It isn't just Twitter's new name that's likely causing confusion, it's its new look, too. A search for "Twitter" on the App Store on August 21 does offer up X as the first result, but the bold, black listing is practically unrecognizable as the new evolution of Twitter. There's little reference to its bright, bird-y past in the listing's visuals or descriptive text.

https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-app-store-downloads

[Maria]

Rebranding of Twitter has not helped Twitter/X grow, in fact, it's worth is less than what Musk paid for. I think Musk changed the name for one simple reason: his fascination with the letter X. He owned a payment company called X which later merged with another company and was rebranded to Paypal. I believe rebranding was also done to add ecommerce functionality on Twitter.

[Destiny]

This is not surprising. I have no idea why Elon Musk felt he had to change the name of Twitter which has been its name and branding for many many years, choosing X was also not one of the smarter moves either, I have seen so many complaining about the name change and what it was changed to. 

Changing the name or even your branding is always risky, especially if it's been the same for many years so ut is not surprising it started to affect app store downloads. 

[Toni]

Branding is super important if you are a business and looking to keep business booming. Someone such as Elon Musk making such a drastic change to the branding of Twitter to X was a shock to me and I believe was the reason behind the decrease in app store downloads in which we are seeing now. 

It still baffles me why Musk felt the need to make the brand name change like he did. 

[Nomad]

Musk renamed Twitter for just one reason, he is deeply attached with the alphabet X (his payment company was called X). Unless he introduces new features, the reason to remain the name would prove to be childish