Elon Musk’s grand vision is to turn Twitter into a one-stop shop for financial services. Twitter has obtained money-transmitter licenses in four US states, and Musk’s vision includes integrating banking and payments features into the platform, according to Blomberg.
It’s hardly the first time a tech giant has sought to muscle in on Jamie Dimon’s turf.
Facebook spent years investing in a project called Libra that was supposed to revolutionize cross-border payments, but regulatory scrutiny forced it to abandon the push. Google planned a digital financial offering and even lined up 11 banks as partners for the launch before it suddenly nixed the entire plan. Amazon.com Inc. considered offering checking accounts for consumers, yet that endeavor never became a reality.
Musk has prior experience in the financial technology sector, as he was the founder of the company now recognized as PayPal Holdings Inc.
In 2022, during his acquisition of the social media platform, Musk shared his vision through tweets, expressing his desire for Twitter to emulate Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat model. WeChat, a messaging service turned super-app, boasts over a billion daily users in China. Musk’s aspiration was to transform Twitter into a similar multifunctional platform, resembling WeChat’s success as a fintech titan. Like WeChat, the envisioned Twitter would enable users to send funds to each other, make payments for goods and services, and even have access to borrowing options.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below: