- Elon Musk announced that his social media platform X is set to receive a money transmitter license in New York, moving closer to adding payment functionalities.
- X is also expected to obtain a license in California soon, highlighting the platform’s efforts to offer services similar to those of Tencent’s WeChat, including social features and payment options.
- Musk mentioned considering the removal of visible likes and retweets counts on posts to reduce visual clutter on X.
OUR TAKE
In fact, just by renaming Twitter to X, Musk’s determination to transform it into a global payment hub is evident. From a more practical standpoint, venturing into the payment sector could help diversify X’s business and reduce its heavy reliance on digital advertising. Under Musk’s leadership, X’s digital advertising revenue has suffered due to controversies surrounding his personal policies and statements, with a nearly halved revenue in 2023 compared to the previous year.
— Chloe CHEN, BTW reporter
On Wednesday, Elon Musk announced that his social media platform X will receive a money transmitter license in New York, bringing X a step closer to offering payment functionalities.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Musk stated that X is expected to receive a license in California about next month, with New York approval possibly coming “a few months later.”
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Musk wants to transform X into something like WeChat app
Since 2022, Musk has been committed to transforming X into something akin to Tencent’s WeChat app, which has both social features and the capability to send money and make payments to other users.
Experts suggest that in order to implement this service across the United States, the X platform needs to obtain money transmitter licenses in each state, and Musk has indicated that getting this license in New York and California is most crucial due to their large populations and the complex approval processes involved.
Some regions have already provided X with money transmitter licenses
It has been reported that some regions, including Pennsylvania and Utah, have already provided X with money transmitter licenses.
Additionally, during the conference, Musk also mentioned that X is considering removing the visible count of likes and retweets on each post, believing that this information might visually clutter the content on the platform.
