At the start of this month, Elon Musk changed the name of Twitter to X as part of his strategy to create an everything app.
However, in a delicious twist of irony, Musk’s attempt to create an everything app has led to no one downloading it.
Since the name change, X downloads have fallen dramatically and seen it fall out of the top 30 most-downloaded apps on the iOS App Store to around 64th according to investor and analyst Eric Seufert.
Twitter has seen a dramatic decrease in its Top Downloaded chart position across both platforms since the app was renamed to X. Why? The situation presents a fascinating case study at the intersection of brand equity and mobile platform dynamics. (1/X) pic.twitter.com/qJ9Jz5K5Ek
— Eric Seufert (@eric_seufert) August 16, 2023
“The case is somewhat unprecedented: Twitter built a ubiquitous, household-name brand over the course of nearly 2 decades and then simply abandoned it, leaving it to be exploited by competitors, unopposed, through the mobile platforms’ branded search ads,” Seufert wrote on Twitter. Sorry, X.
4/ My hypothesis is that, while the terminally-online are entirely aware of Twitter’s rebrand to X, most consumers aren’t, and their searches for “Twitter” on platform stores surface ads and genuine search results that are in no way redolent of Twitter. This is unrecognizable: pic.twitter.com/GcWcQ0YphL
— Eric Seufert (@eric_seufert) August 16, 2023
Musk has been on a mission to drive new sources of revenue for X, despite kneecapping the advertising revenue that made up around half of Twitter’s income.
Last week, Musk axed the “Promoted Accounts” feature that generated around $155 million in revenue for Twitter per year.
The formats were “easy to sell” according to company insiders and the changes were “driven by X’s product group, not the revenue side of the company” — i.e. Musk’s part of the company, not CEO Linda Yaccarino’s.
But, with this data about declining downloads, it seems Musk is intent on losing users as well as money.
When the rebrand was announced Jaid Hulsbosch, managing director of the eponymous branding agency, told B&T that it would communicate that the company was “going in a different direction, doing something new and is going to be re-established,” he said.
“You only do something like this, at this level, if you are going to significantly change your business offer, your proposition or what you’re going to offer to customers, shareholders and stakeholders.”
At the same time as X’s sharp decline in downloads, installs for TikTok and Whatsapp remained constant. Downloads of Threads, the Instagram-produced rival to Twitter, meanwhile jumped significantly before starting a slow decline, according Seufert’s numbers.
Twitter / X continues to experience Top Downloaded chart rank decline following the app’s name change from Twitter to X. https://t.co/ugwUgDL19Y pic.twitter.com/cKyFPUs1MB
— Eric Seufert (@eric_seufert) August 11, 2023
Clearly, something X is going in a very different direction from Twitter.
