Elon Musk Unveils Plan to Turn X Into ‘Powerful’ Financial Platform – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk recently announced his plan to transform his social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, into a comprehensive financial platform. In a recent all-hands call with X employees, Musk emphasized that this financial platform would encompass every aspect of an individual’s financial life, effectively eliminating the need for a traditional bank account.
The Verge reported on this development, referencing an audio recording of the meeting. Noting that he expects financial and payment features to launch on X by the end of 2024, Musk claimed that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.” The billionaire described: “When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money.”
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“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.” The social media company is currently in the process of securing money transmission licenses across the U.S. in order to offer financial services to users.
Musk said during the Thursday meeting that he hopes to obtain the additional licenses X requires within “the next few months.” Furthermore, Musk disclosed that he, along with venture capitalist David Sacks, drafted the product roadmap for X/Paypal back in July 2000. Sacks initially held the role of PayPal’s inaugural product leader and later assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer.
However, Musk noted that once Paypal was acquired by Ebay in October 2002, “not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features.” He opined: “So Paypal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago.”
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Regarding when the financial features will be available on X, Musk said: “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.” The Tesla boss stated last November that X could offer “an extremely compelling money market account,” debit cards, checks, and loan services. Moreover, he previously said that X would become an “everything app.”