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Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has received approval to provide payments services from 13 US states so far. However, the platform is pursuing licenses from other states, as well, and is likely to receive more in due time.
The most recent approval came from the US state of Pennsylvania, taking X one step closer to reaching Musk’s vision of transforming the platform from a simple social media app into an “everything app.” Musk’s goal is to create an app that would allow users to conduct their “entire financial life” in one place.
Receiving multiple licenses from various US states will permit X to enable and conduct money transfers in the same way as other payments systems, such as PayPal’s Venmo.
Earlier this year, X received licenses from New Hampshire in late June, followed by Arizone, Missouri, and Michigan in July. After that, it was registered in Maryland, Georgia, and Rhode Island in August, followed by Mississippi and Iowa in September. Finally, it received licenses in Kansas, Wyoming and South Dakota, as per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System’s database.
Of course, 13 states — while a good start — are not enough if X wants to offer payments services across the country. To achieve this, it will have to gain approval from all states. But, once it manages to achieve this goal, Musk has plans to further expand available features for users who have 500 or more followers, in addition to five million organic impressions, and allow advertising revenue sharing.
Musk plans to start payments services on X by the end of 2024
X has been a rather controversial platform for years now, but more than ever since Musk tok over. Recently, the platform made headlines due to a controversy that resulted in a mass advertiser exit. While they started leaving the platform due to an apparent endorsement of hate speech, Musk and X gave up on trying to keep them. Instead, they doubled down on supporting small businesses.
Earlier this year, in October, the company had an all-hands call with employees. During the call, Musk explained his intentions in regards to the payments. He said: “When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. 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. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”
To stress how serious he was about the idea, he also added, “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.” This suggests that X intends to pursue additional licenses until it can cover the majority, if not all of the United States, and that its payments features should see their debut sometime next year, if new challenges do not get in the way.