(31 August 2023 – United States) X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has obtained money transmitter licences from seven US states over the past month.
After his $43 billion takeover of Twitter in April, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, outlined his ambitions to transform the platform into a financial super app, along the lines of Chinese social media app WeChat.
In a gathering on Spaces, Musk mused on an idea to emulate his first business Paypal, creating the infrastructure for Twitter to process payments, complete with connected debit cards and bank accounts.
The new payment licences from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Mayland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire and Rhode Island are among the first steps to be taken to realise this vision.
Musk has said that he envisions users connecting their online bank accounts to the social media service, with the company moving later into “debit cards, checks and whatnot.”
Twitter has previously nibbled around the edges of financial services, adding a tipping feature for users to reward creators on the platform and enabling people to charge subscription fees for exclusive content, like newsletters.
In April, the company rolled out a feature that will let users access stocks, cryptocurrencies and other financial assets through a partnership with eToro.