Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed his desire to transform X (formerly known as Twitter) into an “everything app” since he acquired the microblogging platform last year. He wants X to be an emerging platform for social networking, news, video streaming, online shopping, banking, and financial services
Now, according to an internal audio recording obtained by The Verge, Musk has said that X will introduce features capable of handling financial services on its platform by the end of 2024 to create a better banking experience for customers.
Making the announcement during an all-hands call with X employees on Thursday, Musk, who was joined by X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino, said that X users won’t even need a bank account as this social media platform will be able to take care of the financial needs of the people. He added that users will be surprised to see how “just powerful it is.”
“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account,” The Verge quoted him as saying.
Yaccarino, too said that the company sees this becoming a “full opportunity” in 2024. “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year,” the billionaire added.
Currently, X is trying to obtain money or currency transmitter licenses across the U.S. to become an app offering financial services. The license will allow X to facilitate wire and electronic transfers.
Until now, the company has acquired a currency transmitter license for the social media platform in four U.S. states, namely Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Musk hopes to obtain all the necessary licenses that X needs in “the next few months.”
In addition, the billionaire has prior experience in the financial technology sector, as he founded the company that eventually became PayPal Holdings Inc.
“The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000,” Musk said, adding, “And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago,” The Verge reported.
Musk envisions turning X into an “everything app”, a one-stop solution just like WeChat in China, which offers users access to multiple services, including messaging, finance, online shopping, and much more.
