X Remains Committed To In-App Payments

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X Remains Committed To In-App Payments

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In 2025, X will continue pursuing its goal of becoming an “everything app,” especially with regard to in-app payment functionality.

Alongside “X TV” and the company's Grok AI chatbot, a recent post from X CEO Linda Yaccarino lists “X Money” as a feature to expect in the coming year. The concept harkens back to X owner Elon Musk's plan to convert the app previously known as Twitter into a payments hub.

Musk has a notable history in online banking. The billionaire's first online banking start-up, X.com, launched in 1999 and eventually became PayPal.

Not long after Musk bought Twitter in 2022, the platform's parent company X Corp secured its first licenses to enable funds transfers in the app, allowing companies to send, receive, and transfer funds among users in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Missouri.

In an interview, Musk likened the future of X's payment functionality to China's popular WeChat app, which billions of users in the region use to pay their bills and buy groceries, along with entertainment and social media-based activities.

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However, Musk and Yaccarino misled users who expected “X Money” to launch by the end of 2024. In October 2023, Musk informed X employees that they soon would not need a bank, stating that “it would blow my mind if we don’t have [X Money] rolled out by the end of next year.”

Since announcing these premature projections, X has finalized payment transmitter licenses in 38 states, but withdrew its application for a license in New York after a legal filing was made against the platform for allegedly disclosing confidential user data to the Saudi Arabian government and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s investments in X.

Musk has said that New York would be a key state for the platform’s initial payments push.

With Yaccarino's reintroduction of X Money, users in specific states – those that X is legally allowed to play host to online payments – may be able to soon send and receive money directly in the social media app. 

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January 3, 2025 at 02:41PM