A thrilling win for Twitter recently stirred the social media waters, making an unmissable splash in the tech universe. This trailblazing platform, under the aegis of its parent company X Corp, has successfully secured its first licenses to enable in-app money transfers in Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire. This development, reported by Fortune, signifies Twitter's pioneering step towards making its app not just a social interaction hub but also a bustling marketplace.
What's at the heart of this transformation? The answer lies in the ambitious vision of Elon Musk, the brain behind the X Corp. His objective? To turn Twitter into a one-stop-shop "everything app", reminiscent of China's ubiquitous WeChat, which has effortlessly integrated itself into the daily lives of billions in the region. From buying groceries to keeping up with the latest news, WeChat has made itself indispensable, and that's the very functionality Musk envisions for Twitter.
This grand concept isn't new to Musk. Back in 1999, he launched X.com, his first online banking start-up, which later morphed into the globally-renowned PayPal. This experience sparked Musk's concept of an 'everything app', a platform built upon a foundation of payments, providing a smorgasbord of services. Fast forward to today, and Musk is making strides towards realizing this vision, embedding payment capabilities into Twitter's framework to ultimately transform it into a mega-utility app.
But could Twitter really morph into a billion-user platform, as Musk anticipates? The successful entrepreneur has hinted to Twitter's investment partners that this payment feature could generate a whopping $1.3 billion by 2028.
However, this journey won't be a walk in the park. It's a trail already blazed by numerous online platforms, including Meta, which attempted to make its Messenger a 'Western WeChat'. Yet, it soon discovered that its users were interested in messaging, not payments or gaming, causing Meta to reevaluate its strategies.
Nonetheless, Musk seems determined to avoid Meta's pitfalls. Armed with business connections and deep knowledge of the payment landscape, he aims to successfully navigate Twitter into the waters of in-app payments.
Yet, the challenges remain monumental. Despite approval in three states, there's still a long road ahead in terms of building the payment function and creating a reliable pathway for purchases. Not to mention the question of whether users will embrace this new functionality.
As Musk endeavors to remake Twitter in his image, this exciting payment feature development is a critical milestone to watch.
