Social media platform X, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has launched its much-anticipated digital payments service to the US in the company's effort to become an “everything app” in the U.S. market.
The payment feature will let users send and receive money directly through the X platform, expanding its services beyond social networking. It was part of Elon Musk’s long-term strategy to bring financial services, messaging, content creation and commerce together into one application.
The launch is one of the biggest changes that X has undergone since Musk acquired the platform. We will be entering the digital payments space to compete with the existing payment companies and give users a smooth way to deal with payments without leaving the app.
The payments service is based on security, user verification and regulatory compliance, the company said. The platform has spent months obtaining the necessary money-transmitter licenses in various U.S. states before launching the service.
If the move is taken forward in the digital payments industry, industry experts expect the change to be significant and change the face of digital payment culture if it is widely used. With millions of users on X already using X to receive news, entertainment, and communication from other people, peer-to-peer payments will help drive engagement and revenue for the business as well as new revenue opportunities for them.
The payments feature is also expected to benefit creators, businesses, and merchants on the platform. Users could eventually receive creator payments, make purchases, tip content creators, and make business transactions directly within X, reducing reliance on third-party payment services.
The launch aligns with Elon Musk’s long-standing ambition of building a comprehensive digital ecosystem similar to the “super apps” popular in parts of Asia, where messaging, shopping, banking, payments, and social networking are available in one application.
While the service is currently limited to the U.S., the product will be expanded to other markets as regulatory approval and local financial regulations are met. More financial products could be added in the future like payment and business-oriented services.
X will need to develop trust, ease of use, security standards and to be able to differentiate with well-established payment platforms in digital payments, and its success in the digital payment sector would be up to users’ trust, according to analysts. The company also has to navigate the complex financial regulations as it expands globally.
The launch of X’s digital payments service is yet another step in Elon Musk’s larger vision of turning the platform from a social media network to a full digital platform for communication, commerce, and financial services.
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