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Elon Musk is getting one step closer to making his X the “everything app” — by getting into personal finance.
The social media platform formerly known as Twitter had already expanded beyond its initial scope when Musk first purchased it more than two years ago. In November 2023, it added “X Hiring,” a job search function meant to rival companies like LinkedIn (MSFT-0.80%) and Indeed.
X’s first partner in its “X Money” initiative will be Visa (V+0.53%), according to CEO Linda Yaccarino, who says the program will launch later this year. In a statement, Visa said it was “excited” to work with the company.
Yaccarino wrote on her platform that X Money would allow for “secure” and “instant” funding to an “X Wallet” through Visa Direct, which also works with Stripe and DailyPay, among others. X users will also be able to connect their debit card to make peer-to-peer payments, similar to services provided by companies like Zelle and Venmo (PYPL+0.69%).
Users can also “instantly transfer funds” to their bank accounts through X Money, according to Yaccarino. “First of many big announcements about X Money this year,” she wrote. “LFG.”
Musk has repeatedly labeled X as the “everything app,” something that has been tried by fellow entrepreneurs, including Meta’s (META+0.60%) Mark Zuckerberg and Uber’s (UBER-1.59%) Dara Khrosroshaki, but without much success. In 2023, Musk wrote that X would give users “the ability to conduct your entire financial world.”
Musk has said that the product roadmap for X’s payment plans was first created by himself and fellow “PayPal Mafia” member David Sacks, although much of it wasn’t implemented in PayPal. In 2000, Musk was ousted from his job as PayPal’s CEO, in part because he tried to rebrand it as X.com.
“If it involves money, it’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend,” Musk said during an all-hands call with X employees in late 2023 of his vision for X, The Verge reported. “I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”
X Payments LLC, a subsidiary of X Corp., has only obtained money transmission licenses in 41 states, according to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System website and X’s own website. Excluded states include New York, Alaska, and Delaware.