The rebranded social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has set its sights on becoming an “everything app” by rolling out a peer-to-peer payment service later this year.
This move, reminiscent of Venmo or PayPal, aligns with Elon Musk’s vision for X as a central hub for users’ online lives.
X officially announced the planned feature in a blog post, stressing its intention to “enhance user utility and unlock new commerce opportunities.” While a specific launch date remains undisclosed, Musk previously hinted to Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood that the service might appear as early as “mid-2024.”
This payment system aims to showcase the convenience of consolidating multiple aspects of users’ lives into a single platform, further propelling X towards Musk’s ambition of becoming a one-stop app for social media, video content, and more.
X Payments has already made headway in its preparations, securing money transmitter licenses for payments in 10 states and registering to operate in 32, as reported by TechCrunch in December.
Musk’s interest in digital payments stretches back to his founding of X.com, later known as PayPal. Despite stepping away from direct involvement in the online payments sector since then, Musk has consistently expressed a desire to re-enter this domain through X, which he acquired for $44 billion in October 2022.
Interestingly, Twitter filed to establish Twitter Payments LLC before Musk’s acquisition.
Taking inspiration from China’s WeChat, a multifunctional app combining messaging and peer-to-peer transactions, Musk envisions X offering comprehensive communication and financial capabilities.
X has seen remarkable user engagement growth under Musk’s leadership, boasting 100 million daily viewers for its Immersive Video feature. However, while X claims to have reached 500 million users with over 2 million daily signups, data from Similarweb suggests a December average of 94 million total site visits and 45.9 million unique users.
For comparison, Meta’s Threads, a short-form blogging competitor, averaged approximately 76.6 million users and 29.5 million unique users during the same period.
