Elon Musk envisions X as the core of your financial world, taking care of anything related to money in your life.
He shared this vision with X (formerly Twitter) employees during a meeting, where he announced that these features should be up and running by the end of 2024. He emphasized the power of these developments, saying it will be surprising.
Musk clarified, “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.” Musk’s remarks were obtained from an audio recording of the meeting.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, is optimistic about this becoming a reality in 2024. Musk expressed his expectation that these features would be available by the end of the following year.
Currently, the company is actively working on securing licenses for money transmission across the US, a crucial step in offering financial services. Musk revealed his hope to obtain the necessary licenses in the next few months.
Musk has previously discussed his plans to transform X into a financial hub. He even renamed Twitter after his dot-com-era online bank, X.com, which later became part of PayPal.
The platform’s offerings are expected to include high-yield money market accounts, debit cards, checks, and loan services, with the goal of enabling users to send money worldwide instantly and in real-time.
Musk also reminisced about the original X.com product roadmap, which was created in July 2000. He noted that PayPal, which absorbed X.com and became eBay, didn’t fully implement the original plan and even rolled back some key features. This historical context underscores Musk’s determination to make X a comprehensive financial platform.
“The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000. “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.” Musk said on Thursday’s internal X call.
Turning X into a comprehensive financial hub aligns with Musk’s vision of making the platform an “everything app,” similar to super apps like WeChat in China, which offer a wide range of services, from shopping to transportation.
However, Musk faces significant challenges in achieving this vision, such as convincing users of the platform’s necessity and gaining their trust to manage their entire financial lives.
