Following the rebrand of Twitter to X, the social platform, which previously focused on microblogging, has been slowing transitioning into what is called “the everything app.”
Of course, this was a cool way to promote the plans Elon Musk has for the app but anyone with a working brain knows that there can never be an everything app, there's just too much that exists that a truly everything app would be a giant failure.
Nevertheless, what there can be is an app that serves multiple aligned purposes, crucial to every day living, today.
This, is what X aims to be. In today's world, the average person with access to a smart mobile device has a social app and a banking. Even though not everyone is hyper active users of these applications, they are users at the end of the day.
According to data from reports, as much as 2.17 billion people use mobile banking, but this number is closer to 4 billion when we consider the broader digital banking and Fintech penetration.
Social media on the other hand serves as much as 5.3 billion people to which X reports having 11.3% of said users on its platform.
X aims to be the one app for the most crucial things these people use their smart devices for. From keeping up with what's happening around the world, conversing with families and friends, sharing opinions, building brands or businesses and promoting to global or local audiences, and now, to transacting monetary value and investing conveniently.
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, will soon integrate various financial services, enabling users to make payments and investments directly within the app.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform’s estimated 600 million users will eventually “be able to transact [their] whole life on the platform,” from sending money to managing investments.
The company is also considering launching an X-branded credit or debit card, potentially later this year. — Cointelegraph report
What does this mean for commerce?
Yacarrino told the Financial Times that the X Money payment app would first launch in the US, calling it a “whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem.”
Generally when I think about the fusion of finance and social media, I think about a neighborhood with various businesses close by. This generally affords the people living there easy access to necessities whenever they want them and that is often a profitable experience for those businesses.
Similarly, merging finance and social media completely changes commerce. We may see spending habits go through the roof and more and more people get involved in the investment world.
This is something I've lightly discussed with “SocialFi.”
Businesses will have their products and services directly integrated on these social platforms which also happens to have banking services embedded.
This will greatly increase conversion rates for businesses, similar to how the previously referenced neighborhood will see businesses enjoy far more benefits(income) than those far away.
Thing about it. What's your spending habits like when you just have easy access to things? Generally, it's uncontrollable.
X payments could make the social platform more appealing to not just users who are seeking convenience in payments, but also businesses as the said integrated solution makes X an attractive pool of consumer attention.
What does this mean for crypto?
Every time X payments is discussed, the question of crypto payments being involved comes up and this is primarily because Elon Musk earlier showed support for the industry and has been actively promoting the memecoin, DOGE.
Neither Yaccarino nor Musk has confirmed whether crypto payments will be part of X’s financial ecosystem, despite Musk’s well-known support for Dogecoin, the popular dog-themed memecoin launched in 2013.
In March 2024, Musk said DOGE could be used to buy Teslas “at some point,” though he gave no timeline. Crypto users took this as a sign that the entrepreneur could soon roll out crypto payment support across all his companies.
Does it really matter?
We can expect that stablecoins will be integrated at some point, but does it matter in the grand scheme of things?
I think what matters most isn't if crypto payments will happen on the platform, there's literally already the Bitcoin lightning tips on the platform, if that isn't enough of a sign that X is crypto friendly, plus the fact that it's literally the base platform for crypto discussions, I don't know what else would be enough.
That said, what people should be paying more attention to is that X is now a direct competition to SocialFi apps, of the decentralized world. By releasing X payments, it could potentially earn first mover advantage to what should have been a crypto native solution.
The platform has microblogging, long-form articles, videos, spaces, live streaming, integrated AI, semi-free speech and soon payments — which by the way sets the stage for a much greater merge of the finance and investment world. That's a suite of services that will be tough to compete with.