Elon Musk Goes For Blood As X Enters Payments, Aiming For Apple Pay and PayPal's Heads

Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has officially entered the payments chat, striking a deal with Visa to power its new “X Money” feature. Think Venmo but with fewer baby shower GIFs and more crypto degens bragging about “hodling.” The play goes like this: users will be able to load up a digital wallet, connect debit cards, make peer-to-peer payments, and even transfer funds directly to their bank accounts. Essentially, Musk is trying to turn X into the Swiss Army knife of apps—messaging, social media, and payments all in one chaotic package.

(Source: Giphy) 

For Visa, it’s a no-brainer. The payments giant gets a front-row seat to Musk’s latest science experiment, tapping into the rapidly growing digital payments market while sidestepping the regulatory headaches that come with actually running a social media platform. 

For X, though, this is the first real move toward Musk’s so-called “everything app” goal—a concept that’s been done to death in Asia (see: WeChat) but has yet to really take off in the U.S. Why? Because Americans are still too busy juggling five different apps to pay their rent, stalk their friends, and argue about politics online.

(Source: New York Post) 

Now if you’re familiar with Musk (outside of his Tesla and SpaceX days), his founding of PayPal—the once darling of peer-to-peer payments before it became a bloated, fee-happy dinosaur—is what literally made him a billionaire. Meaning, Musk isn’t drifting off into uncharted territory here, and with his stellar track record in the space—he’s more than willing to have X gunning for the same market he made his money in. 

What’s more, is that this is just another example of Elon going where the money is. The U.S. digital payments industry has been on a tear since 2020, thanks to the pandemic forcing everyone to figure out how to Venmo their friends for drinks instead of handing over crumpled bills. Visa and Mastercard have been pouring money into this space, trying to fend off tech-first disruptors like PayPal, Cash App, and Apple Pay. So now with X’s entry into the game the results here will be… interesting to watch. 

(Source: CNBC) 

CEO Linda Yaccarino, who Musk still lets pretend to be in charge, called the Visa partnership the “first concrete move” toward building X’s financial ecosystem—with the X Money service expected to launch sometime in Q1 (Musk is reportedly eyeing creator payments as one of the earliest use cases). Which means, forget Patreon or Substack—soon, you’ll be able to tip your favorite meme account directly through X Money. Just don’t write “for feet pics” in the payment memo, or Musk might personally flag it for “fun.” LOL.

The real question though, is if Musk is actually turning X into the “everything app” of the U.S.A.? We all know he’s been preaching about it since he bought Twitter for $44 billion—so we know it’s at the top of his to-do list. But turning a social network into a super app is a high-risk, high-reward play. WeChat’s success in China is the exception, not the rule, and it’s not like Musk has been knocking it out of the park with X since the rebrand. For now, Visa’s involvement gives X some credibility, but whether users will actually adopt X Money is another question entirely.

(Source: Giphy) 

Now obviously, when it comes to investors, X is a private company—however, competitors like PayPal and Apple are no doubt raising some eyebrows here. But still, I wouldn’t say they are shaking in their boots just yet. For all the hype, X’s move into payments is going to need more than a Visa partnership and Musk’s bravado to actually disrupt the space. But hey, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Musk, is that he doesn’t shy away from a challenge.

He’s the renaissance man of the century, who has disrupted nearly every industry he’s touched—so the momentum is definitely on his side with this one. But that doesn’t mean it ain’t a long shot. For now, keep an eye on the payment competitors that will likely be impacted, and place your bets accordingly. As always, stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time…

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Stocks.News holds positions in Apple and Tesla as mentioned in the article.