Twitter boss Elon Musk renamed Twitter to X on July 23 to show his vision for the future of the platform. However, the change doesn’t appear to have benefited Twitter, instead causing its downloads to plummet on Apple’s App Store.
After Twitter officially changed its name to X on the App Store on July 31, its “Top Downloads” ranking on the App Store dropped from 35th to 54th, according to an analysis by media strategist Eric Seifert. Seifert believes that’s because most consumers don’t know Twitter’s new name, and when they search for “Twitter” on the App Store, they see results that people don’t recognize as Twitter.
In addition to the new name, Twitter’s new icon is also confusing. Searching for “Twitter” on the App Store, although the X appears at the top of the results, its black icon and text make it almost impossible to recognize that this is the new image of Twitter.
Seifert also compared X’s rankings to other social media platforms between Aug. 1 and Aug. 11. The results showed that WhatsApp and TikTok maintained solid performances, while emerging contender Threads also ranked well, sometimes even surpassing WhatsApp and TikTok, while X remained low.
For Musk, the numbers are troubling. Because without new users, there is no business growth and no revenue growth, maybe he should rethink his plan to revamp Twitter.
