When Elon Musk bought Twitter, one of his many controversial decisions was to rebrand the company and social network platform as X. He said at the time that the purchase was “as an accelerant for X, the everything app” – aka a western clone of China’s WeChat.
Part of this vision includes becoming a mobile payment platform to compete with Apple Pay, and the company’s CEO today said part of this functionality will launch later this year …
WeChat is China’s ‘everything app’
WeChat started life as a messaging app and has since expanded into, well, almost every sphere of life – including a ubiquitous payment platform in the country. As tech investment expert Connie Chan said back in 2015, there is almost nothing you cannot do in China through the app:
WeChat users in China can access services to hail a taxi, order food delivery, buy movie tickets, play casual games, check in for a flight, send money to friends, access fitness tracker data, book a doctor appointment, get banking statements, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, recognize music, search for a book at the local library, meet strangers around you, follow celebrity news, read magazine articles, and even donate to charity … all in a single, integrated app […]
The way it achieves this goal is through one of the most unsurfaced aspects of WeChat: the pioneering model of “apps within an app”. Millions (note, not just thousands) of lightweight apps live inside WeChat, much like webpages live on the internet.
This makes WeChat more like a browser for mobile websites, or, arguably, a mobile operating system — complete with its own proprietary app store.
X Everything App to launch this year
Musk wants to replicate this in the western world, as the X Everything App. He’s said that this would include “the ability to conduct your entire financial world.” This would include mobile wallet functionality, peer-to-peer payments, bill payments, accessing existing bank accounts and more.
Top comment by NaeemTHM
The CurrentC fiasco is a stark reminder that people aren't interested in another payment method on their phones.
VERY excited for this to blow up in their face.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino says that the app will launch this year, with Visa as its first financial partner.
Another milestone for the Everything App: @Visa is our first partner for the @XMoney Account, which will debut later this year.
💰Allows for secure + instant funding to your X Wallet via Visa Direct
🪪 Connects to your debit card allowing P2P payments
🏦 Option to instantly transfer funds to your bank account
First of many big announcements about X Money this year.
LFG.
LFG is an acronym for Let’s F*cking Go.
Her list doesn’t include mobile payments to businesses, either online or in-store, so it seems as if peer-to-peer payments are the first priority, with more features to follow.
Image: Michael Bower/9to5Mac
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments