Elon Musk continues to discover new territory with his purchase of Twitter. Having now rebranded Twitter as “X,” Musk recently described X as morphing into an “everything app.” Musk says that from a media platform allowing free speech, X will become a “comprehensive communications” provider as well as the ability to “conduct your entire financial world.”
Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.
The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2023
Musk’s comments on X followed newly installed CEO Linda Yaccarino’s discussion on the future of X, highlighting the vision of a payments/banking and marketplace future.
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 23, 2023
First, this approach makes a good amount of sense as the digitization of finance continues at a rapid pace. Other social media firms have already trailblazer a portion of this path. At the same time, consumers typically prefer dealing with fewer apps or services – not more.
But questions remain as to how Musk will achieve this ambition to provide all types of financial services in an industry that is one of the most highly regulated.
Most likely, Musk will operate as a neobank – partnering with other chartered or approved financial services firms to provide these services. This is similar to what many Fintechs do, like Apple, which works with Goldman Sachs to provide banking services. The alternative is to acquire a financial service firm to provide these services, an extended task that requires great scrutiny. And then which firm (or firms) would X acquire? Robinhood? It is only $11.3 billion…
