Elon Musk has revealed plans for social media platform X – formerly Twitter – to begin rolling out financial features by the end of 2024.
During the first all-hands call of
Musk said he wanted “someone’s entire financial life” to be available on the platform, according to an audio recording of the Oct. 26 meeting obtained by The Verge.
“When it comes to money. It will be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever,” he reportedly said.
“So it’s not just about sending my friend $20. I’m talking about how you don’t need a bank account.”
The billionaire businessman explained his financial ambitions for the platform, which he hopes to use to replace traditional consumer bank accounts
Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino, who took over the position from Musk in June, said the company sees it as a “fully-fledged opportunity” next year, The Verge reported.
“It would blow my mind if we didn’t roll this out by the end of next year,” Musk said at the meeting, according to the source.
X is reportedly working on obtaining money transfer licenses in every US state to offer financial services.
According to Business Insider, the company has received licenses in nine states so far – including most recently Iowa and Mississippi.
Musk has previously expressed his desire to make X a financial center, even renaming Twitter after his dot-com boom-era online bank, X.com, which eventually became part of PayPal.
Last year, he told employees that the platform would offer high-interest money market accounts, debit cards, checking and loan services, according to The Verge.
He said the goal is to give users the ability to “send money anywhere in the world, instantly and in real time.”
Instead of the “complex and expensive” systems of traditional banks, users would have “an account balance on Twitter that can easily become positive or negative,” he said.
For places that don’t accept Twitter Payments (now X), Musk said consumers would receive a debit card tied to their balance – and even traditional checks if they want them.
It’s familiar territory for Musk, who co-founded PayPal and is openly disappointed with eBay’s handling of the company when it bought it in 2002. The companies ultimately separated in 2015.
“It would blow me away if we didn’t launch this by the end of next year,” Musk reportedly said during a company-wide conference call on October 26
On the last internal call, he said, “The X/PayPal product roadmap was actually written by me and David Sacks in July 2000.”
“And for some reason, when PayPal became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, they actually rolled back a number of key features, which is crazy.”
“So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we developed in July 2000, 23 years ago.”
The conversion of
WeChat is a one-stop shop offering instant messaging, social media, shopping and mobile payments.
During the internal call on October 26, Musk also expressed his desire to make X a “full-fledged” dating site.