According to a report by Semafor on Thursday, the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is looking to partner with a financial data provider to create a trading hub within its app. Major financial service providers have received calls for proposals from the corporation, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The company specifically requested suggestions relating to financial content, real-time stock data, and other valuable features.
The report stated that prospective bidders were requested to specify how much money they would be willing to invest in the project. However, it’s unclear if any companies have submitted any offers at this time.
In a post on X’s platform, its owner Elon Musk stated that he is unaware of any ongoing efforts in this particular area. While Musk himself denied claims that X is working on this, the more significant question is whether an app like this can succeed in Western countries.
Previous attempts by companies like Meta and Alphabet to build such apps have failed, despite having more substantial financial resources than Musk. According to Foreignpolicy, WeChat, often hailed by Musk as a blueprint for an ‘Everything App’ for the West, is inherently Chinese, and trying to copy and force it in a different environment may prove futile.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Musk said prior to buying Twitter as it was then called.
China is the largest market worldwide for mobile payments and has many otherwise unbanked people, contrary to countries like the USA, UK or Europe, where most people have bank accounts and credit cards. Another challenge for X as a payment app could be the American love for credit cards and the fierce competition among financial services providers, creating a significant obstacle.
Regardless of whether X is seeking outside help with the ‘Everything App,’ Musk has long been clear about his vision for it. He said he wanted to give X users “the ability to conduct your entire financial world” with X. In this context, he changed the Twitter name to X, adding, “so we must bid adieu to the bird.”
And then there is the other question on the mind of many in the crypto industry, will X include crypto payments? As Real-Vision CEO Raoul Pal mentioned earlier in July that “(Elon) will use crypto to be able to make global payments for creators etc. My guess is he uses Doge.”
Elon Musk has been openly fond of what he refers to as the “people’s crypto” and has, on previous occasions, triggered surges in Dogecoin’s price. Since the transformation of Twitter into X, Dogecoin has experienced an impressive rally but failed to reach 1 cent. It remains to be seen if X will integrate Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies into its new payment system.
