X, the social media platform previously recognized as Twitter, has revealed its intention to introduce a peer-to-peer payment service reminiscent of Venmo or PayPal in the current year.

This feature aligns with the vision of X’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who has consistently advocated for its inclusion as part of his strategy to transform the platform into an all-encompassing “everything app.”

X has formally introduced the new feature through a blog post, promoting the service as a means to elevate “user utility and new opportunities for commerce.” While the company did not specify a precise timeframe for the availability of the new service, Elon Musk had previously informed Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood that it might potentially launch as early as “mid-2024.”

As per the company’s statement, the upcoming payment service aims to demonstrate the potential of consolidating more aspects of life within a single platform. Elon Musk, the owner, continues to champion X as a prospective “everything app,” capable of seamlessly managing social media, video content, and various other original content all within the same site.

X Payments has taken steps to conduct business in at least 32 states, as per public records, and has obtained a money transmitter license necessary for processing payments in 10 states, as reported by TechCrunch in December.

KEY BACKGROUND

During the 1990s, Elon Musk played a pivotal role in the founding of X.com, an online bank that underwent rebranding to become PayPal after Musk’s departure due to a board decision. While Musk hasn’t been directly involved in online payments since his early days with the precursor to PayPal, he has frequently expressed interest in reentering the space through X, the social media platform he acquired in October 2022 for $44 billion.

It’s worth noting that Twitter had already initiated the process of establishing Twitter Payments LLC in 2022, several months before Musk’s acquisition of the company. Musk, after officially rebranding the platform as X, posted a message indicating plans to incorporate comprehensive communications and the ability to manage one’s entire financial world in the coming months.

Drawing inspiration from the success of WeChat, a Chinese app developed by tech giant Tencent that seamlessly integrates instant messaging with peer-to-peer payments, Musk has praised it as a model for success with X. In June 2023, during an all-hands meeting, Musk reportedly conveyed to employees that if they could replicate the WeChat experience with Twitter, it would lead to significant success.

TANGENT

In the announcement, X highlighted the company’s surging momentum, attributing it to the unprecedented adoption of new services introduced over the past year under Elon Musk’s leadership. Notably, X reported impressive metrics, such as 100 million daily viewers engaging with the Immersive Video feature. Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino had previously declared a milestone of 500 million users, with a daily influx of over 2 million new signups. However, data from online tracker Similarweb presents a different perspective, suggesting that X recorded approximately 94 million total site visits in the previous December, involving around 45.9 million unique users. To provide a benchmark, Meta’s Threads, a competitor in short-form blogging launched in July, reported about 76.6 million users, compared to its initial 29.5 million users.