Can we all agree 'X' is the worst rebrand in tech history? (opens in new tab)

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16 pointsveeter1y ago18 comments

18 comments

13 comments · 5 top-level

veeterOP1y ago· 4 in thread

Looks like this struck a nerve over on Reddit.

Curious to hear HN's take.

It should be obvious to everyone by now that Musk has some sort of ape-brained obsession with the letter "X," so discussing the rebrand as if it was some soft of carefully considered marketing decision is a bit silly. The point was to feed a man's ego, and I guess it succeeded in that.

Terr_1y ago

> It should be obvious to everyone by now that Musk has some sort of ape-brained obsession with the letter "X,"

Yeah, it's not just some sort of commercial thing either, it's sad (perhaps even a "tragedeigh") how it gets inflicted on his offspring. (12 total, 3 mothers.)

In particular, he tried to name one "X Æ A-12", but state law required A-Z so he was forced to shorten it to "X", and later tried to name another "Exa Dark Sideræl", which seems like a terrible example of hand-me-downs.

PaulHoule1y ago

There are many cases of bad branding. Note Microsoft's habit of naming things without doing the simplest trademark search.

I used to covet 3 letter domains. If I had a 1 letter domain I would want to use it.

Musk was stuck on that name a long time ago, and it's a way to assert power over his platform and drive away people who won't play along with him but it is a real gift to Bluesky. People might not be so offended by the name if they weren't offended by everything else.

EA-31671y ago

I don't disagree, but this is about *re*branding. Twitter was and is a globally iconic trademark, brand name, and has even entered the lexicon (tweeting, etc), and he flushed that for no obviously good reason. Worse he then replaced that branding with something unremarkable and generic.

I can't think of a similar case at this scale, where SO MUCH was traded in for so little, without any external pressure to do so.

3 more replies

hnburnsy1y ago· 2 in thread

How about these...

  Netflix->Qwikster
  Radio Shack->The Shack
  Homegrocer->Webvan
  Yummy.com->Kozmo.com
  Bokus.com->Boo.com
  Broadcast.com->Yahoo! Broadcast Services

veeterOP1y ago

What on earth was the idea behind "Quickster"? Napster?

hnburnsy1y ago

Spin off of the DVD delivery service. Quickly cancelled.

mtmail1y ago· 1 in thread

On my list would be the artist Prince, who changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, which was (and still is) not part of Unicode so newspapers weren't able to print it. We ended up with "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" for 7 years. He changed his name back. Maybe there's hope for Twitter, too.

marssaxman1y ago

That was kind of a genius move, though, despite its weirdness: performing under a different name gave him leverage in his contract battle with Warner Brothers, but using a name which was neither pronounceable nor printable meant that everyone (effectively) kept calling him "Prince" anyway.

gibbitz1y ago· 1 in thread

Twitter was a product I saw no need for to begin with. I think the brain dead management decisions he made going in had a bigger impact than the brain dead branding seemingly done by a terrible agency or one that was just staffed with yes men (same difference). I am more than mildly disturbed that it hasn't gone completely under yet. The fact that so many poor quality name brands can underproduce and stay viable has clearly shaken any faith i had in market balancing or other tenets of Capitalism, leaving me certain we live in hell.

RGamma1y ago

I feel it's gonna correct soon. Just make sure you're not overinvested in the wrong places.

stop501y ago

Till now. Never underestimate idiots.

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