New Docs Outline Plan To Make X The Next Venmo

Bloomberg News reports:

A major plank of Elon Musk’s plan for expanding X into an “everything app” has been grafting a payments network onto its main social networking service. The details of this project have remained blurry, but dozens of documents the company has submitted to state regulators—which have not previously been made public—give a new view of the business.

Those plans include a Venmo-like payments feature that will let users store money on their X accounts, pay other users or businesses, and even buy goods and services in physical stores.

X Payments, a wholly owned subsidiary of X, has been approved for money transmitter licenses in 28 states, according to the company’s website. It is seeking to be licensed in all 50 states and hopes to launch its payment services across the US later this year.

Read the full article. Lots more in the thread below.

New: @elonmusk wants to turn X into an “everything app,” and to do so they need payments. @aishacounts & I submitted public records requests for X’s payments applications in all 50 states. We learned a lot! Here’s a quick thread …https://t.co/KfJfSzInd3

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) June 18, 2024

X wants to build a Venmo-like product where you can transfer and store money, or buy goods and services with minimal fees. Eventually, they even want people to use their X payments accounts to make in-store purchases

The real key, though: Increasing your use of X pic.twitter.com/LOp7BtyGQj

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) June 18, 2024

X’s business was indeed struggling last year (as many have reported) – now we have hard numbers. Revenue was down almost 40% over the first six months of 2023. X lost almost $500m in Q1 last year

All of this helps explain the urgency to figure out the “everything app” pic.twitter.com/8vCnVQ0Mvh

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) June 18, 2024

Who will X work with? They already have partnerships with Stripe and Adyen and told regulators they “anticipate” using them for this new venture as well. X Payments is banking with Citibank. pic.twitter.com/OhESXHG278

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) June 18, 2024

Final thoughts: I think the biggest issue for them here will be user adoption, not getting regulatory approval or building these products. Convincing someone to use X for payments will be the real challenge. It’s a new user behavior. Don’t underestimate this. pic.twitter.com/lPCWCmNPBW

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) June 18, 2024