Elon Musk’s X ventures into financial services with a milestone partnership with VISA. The social media company officially announced the development on Tuesday. The partnership is a step towards Mr Musk’s goal of morphing X into an “everything app.” A while back, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO declared that he wanted to make X more than just a social media platform.
An Everything app would serve as a one-stop shop for multiple services traditionally offered across multiple apps. Like China’s WeChat, it would allow for payment processing, investment services, messaging, and e-commerce on a single app. Depending on the path the ideation curve takes, it could even become a lending platform.
ALSO READ: Tesla’s Key Stock Levels to Watch After the Election Rally and Elon Musk’s New Government Role
CEO Linda Yaccarino explained the functionalities of anticipating the new X app for the X and VISA partnership. She explained that the new financial feature will be called X Money. It will enable app users to make peer-to-peer transactions from their debit cards. Similarly, direct transfers from the X Money digital wallet to a savings account will also be possible. However, this is just an announcement of the fintech incorporation into X. The X Money financial services will not be available until later in the year.
Musk should not have a challenge incorporating fintech and digital payments into the services offered on the X platform. The billionaire owner of X was one of the founders of PayPal, so financial technology is not new to him.
Currently, the lion’s share of X’s revenue comes from in-app advertisements. However, before acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk suggested to investment bankers that he would turn the app into a money-making machine. His projection at the time was that by 2023, the app would feature digital payment services and have an annual turnover of $15 million. In addition, the billionaire’s short-term goal is to turn X into a $1.3 billion giant by 2028.
Another portion of Musk’s pre-acquisition pitch was to relegate ad-driven revenue to the background. His goal was to diversify Twitter’s income sources, now X, starting with financial technology and payment processing.
ALSO READ: Dogecoin Surged After Elon Musk’s Appointment: What’s Happening With This Popular Meme Coin?
Unfortunately, there have been many compromises between October 2022, when Elon Musk became the legal owner of X, and now. For example, all the plans to make X into the Everything app are still unrealized. Now, as Elon Musk’s X ventures into financial services, enthusiasts of blockchain technology are quietly looking into the possibility of X accepting cryptocurrency for payment processing.
X Money may take a while to replace traditional savings accounts, lending platforms, and investment services. At the very least, the social media app’s baby steps into financial technology have toppled the domino of peer-to-peer transactions through the VISA partnership. Hopefully, the other services folks look forward to will follow quickly.