July 8th, 2024, Kineree Shah
Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X), the platform has seen many developments. From mass layoffs to the expansion of premium subscriptions and features, the introduction of the Grok chatbot, a major advertising exodus, the appointment of new CEO Linda Yaccarino, and a complete rebranding to X, the microblogging site has seen considerable changes. But what has the impact on the brand's perception among American consumers been?
According to YouGov BrandIndex US data, X’s image is slowly recovering to its pre-Musk levels. The brand’s Index score, which is an average of six metrics (Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend, and Reputation), stood at -3 on April 14, 2022, the day Musk initiated the acquisition. By October 28 of the same year, when the acquisition was finalized, the score had dropped to -5.6 and reached a low of -11.6 on December 22 of the same year. This comes near the time when a former employee tweeted that Twitter cut half of its public policy team. It's the same month when Musk announced the removal of all legacy blue ticks, and the infamous poll where the Telsa CEO asked users whether he should step down as Twitter CEO.
With Linda Yaccarino's appointment as CEO in May and the rebranding of Twitter to X by the end of July 2023, Index scores reached -7.9 on July 31, though they remained below their previous levels. Scores rose in February 2024 when Tucker Carlson announced an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on X, propelling the app’s downloads. By May 8, the Index score had risen to -0.9, the highest since January 2022.
Despite Musk’s $44 billion investment and the rebranding to X, our poll indicates that a year later, half of Americans still refer to the platform as Twitter (49%), a figure that rises to 55% among daily X users.
Musk envisions X as an "everything app," with plans for YouTube-like streaming, a partnership with BetMGM for sports betting, peer-to-peer payments, AI advancements, and policy changes to allow adult content. The transformation of Twitter to X has been eventful, and while the brand’s health plummeted with Musk’s takeover it has shown signs of recovery.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. X's Index score is the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation scores. Scores are based on an average daily sample size of 3828-5010 US adults between January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024. The figures are based on an 8-week moving average.
YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 25-26 June 2024, with a nationally representative sample of 1,190 adults (aged 18+ years) in the US, using a questionnaire designed by YouGov. Data figures have been weighted by age, race, gender, education, and region to be representative of all adults in the US (18 years or older), and reflect the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.