On Monday morning, TwitterA social media network, now known as X and owned by Elon Musk. users had a big surprise. The social media site's light-blue bird logo was replaced by a white letter X on a black background.

Twitter owner and world's richest man Elon MuskA South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal. tweeted: "Soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds".

The users were angry. Actor Mark Hamill tweeted: "Has everybody seen the (eXecrableExtremely bad. ) new logo?" Despite the change, the website address remains twitter.com.

Musk bought Twitter for £44bn in October. He was forced to buy it after trying to back out.¹ Twitter has been in chaos since. Musk immediately sacked 80% of the company's staff. He loosened rules on what could be on the platform.

And he has limited the number of tweets users could view - despite the fact that the site makes money from people viewing advertisements. The company is reputedly heading towards bankruptcyWhen a person or group has no money left and cannot pay off their debts. .²

There is a big idea behind the change. Musk wants to turn Twitter into an "everything app" called X. Twitter's chief executive Linda Yaccarino tweeted: "X is... a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities." But many wonder what this actually means.

Twitter was an incredibly successful brand. Its logo was widely-known. It even added the word "tweet" to the dictionary. Branding expert Mike Proulx says: "In one fell swoop, Elon Musk has essentially wiped out 15 years of brand value from Twitter and is now essentially starting from scratch."

Some think there is a method to Musk's actions. An "everything app" already exists in China. Musk wants to claim an American version before someone else attempts the same thing.

It also keeps Musk's app in the news. Last month, rival company MetaThe new name of the company which owns Facebook and Instagram. launched a Twitter alternative called Threads.³ It was downloaded 100 million times in a week. But now Twitter is back in the headlines.

Brilliant: Musk has some huge successes. He has worked on electric cars, domestic space travel, super-fast transport and AI. His behaviour on Twitter seems wild. But he may yet have a plan.

Bizarre: Musk's behaviour with Twitter reveals someone who has no idea what he is doing, a fantasist whose plans keep blowing up in his face. It even casts his past work into question. Is he just a big talker?

Or... Musk is neither a genius nor a fool. He is simply an average person, who follows whims and makes mistakes. Only when he does something, it is broadcast to the whole world and can have huge effects.