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Elon Musk’s X Moves Closer to Super App Status with Visa-Powered X Money Accounts

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James Morales
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Key Takeaways

  • X CEO Linda Yaccarino has confirmed that the company has partnered with Visa to build its upcoming payment solution, X Money.
  • Elon Musk has been talking about integrating payments ever since he bought Twitter in 2022.
  • X Money represents a significant milestone in Musk’s vision for X as an “everything app.”

X is on track to launch its digital wallet service X Money later this year, bringing the platform one step closer to owner Elon Musk’s vision of turning it into a super app.

In a post on Tuesday, Jan. 28, CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed that X had partnered with Visa to build the new platform, which will power payments between users.

What Is X Money?

X Money is a forthcoming digital wallet designed to enable transactions on X. 

While details remain limited, Yaccarino described  a platform where users can fund and withdraw from their wallet via Visa’s multicurrency real-time payment solution, Visa Direct.

Media reports  suggest X is working with other partners to integrate more payment options. These could potentially include Mastercard Send and open banking solutions that bypass card networks entirely. 

Use Cases

When Musk has spoken about X Payments in the past, he has emphasized peer-to-peer payments, suggesting the platform could work similarly to PayPal or Venmo.

The most obvious use case for the new service is payments to creators. With built-in payment capabilities, X could simplify the process of receiving tips, subscriptions, or direct payments for exclusive content, reducing their reliance on third-party platforms.

Looking forward, integrating payments could help X cultivate the kind of e-commerce experiences pioneered by Meta and TikTok, which have built custom payment infrastructures to enable seamless, on-platform purchases. 

Beyond content and commerce, X Money could even pave the way for financial services such as lending, investments and crypto transactions. 

X the Everything App

Since buying Twitter in 2022, Musk has been vocal about his ambition to turn the platform into an “everything app” akin to Asian super apps like WeChat and Grab.

“You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so useful and so helpful to your daily life,” Musk told  employees in one of his first calls as the company’s owner. “I think if we could achieve that, or even close to that with Twitter, it would be an immense success.”

Although X Money marks a significant milestone in the platform’s super app journey, major obstacles remain in its way. American consumers already have their preferred digital wallets and X’s e-commerce footprint is tiny compared to its social media rivals. 

For now, that leaves peer-to-peer payments for tips or crowdfunding as X Money’s most compelling use case. But as X evolves into something more like the multi-functional everything app envisaged by Musk, payments could become much more important.

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James Morales

Although his background is in crypto and FinTech news, these days, James likes to roam across CCN’s editorial breadth, focusing mostly on digital technology. Having always been fascinated by the latest innovations, he uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
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