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šļø Farewell, Twitter
Unpacking Twitter's bold transition to X
Hello, Marketers.
Welcome to The Keyword. Where every Monday, Wednesday & Friday we send you a cheat sheet of the latest digital marketing news you can use.
In todayās edition:
Twitter's rebrand: Hello, the era of X
More must-know headlines
Letās jump in šŖ
In case you missed us last week:
Monday: Twitter pays cash to Tweeters
Wednesday: TikTok gets into āSocialā music streaming
Friday: Round-up of Marketing Social
FEATURE
From Tweets to Transactions: Twitter is now āXā
Over the years Elon Musk has talked about a grand vision for X - a kind of super app that is āthe central place where all transactions happenā.
Musk used to run a financial services company called X.com before merging it with PayPal. Elon bought back the X.com domain in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
And now X is making a comeback. But Twitter is just one part of it.
Before the Twitter acquisition Elon tweeted: āBuying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.ā
The X concept is modeled on WeChat, the Chinese app that provides over 1 billion users with social networking, shopping, and payment features. Plus a whole lot more.
In June 2022, Musk told staff: āYou basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, weāll be a great success.ā
The holding company for Twitter has already been changed from Twitter Inc. to X Corp. Now itās time for the full rebrand.
That means the famous Twitter bird is out. And a new āminimalist art decoā X logo is the replacement.
The CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, teased the future of the business:
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity ā centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking ā creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways weāre just beginning to imagine.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc)
Jul 23, 2023
Just the latest twist in the Elon Musk Twitter tenure.
One thing is certain; his fans will love the move, and his detractors hate it.
Why it matters
Elon has put off many advertisers. But in the long term, apparently, heād rather do without our marketing dollars anyway.
Instead, he wants X to be mainly monetized through subscriptions and facilitating financial transactions.
HEADLINES
Microsoft Bing copied Googleās āPerformance Maxā campaign format and released an open beta for advertisers to test. Like Googleās Performance Max, Bing will enable advertisers to run ads across its different ad formats, from one campaign.Ā (Media PostĀ āļø)
Threads will have separate feeds, taking the tried-and-tested TikTok approach. Threads will separate content into two separate feeds. The first will show posts from accounts users chose to follow, listed chronologically. The second will contain algorithm ārecommendedā posts, from accounts users do not follow yet. (BBCĀ āļø)
Apple is testing a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot. Internally called "Apple GPT", Apple is joining OpenAI/Microsoft, Google & Meta by quietly creating itās own language learning model. Although Siri has stagnated and fallen behind rivals, AI is still a big focus for the worldās most valuable company. (Tech CrunchĀ āļø)
Google is lining up itās cookie replacement launch. āPrivacy Sandboxā will roll out in Google Chromeās next update. Privacy Sandbox will still run in parallel with third-party cookies until early 2024. Then cookies will be gradually completely phased out by the second half of 2024. (Tech CrunchĀ āļø)
Thanks for reading & weāll be back on Wednesday
Kole