Social media platform X aims to deliver P2P payments this year
As part of its master plan to become an “everything app”, X has announced its intention to launch peer-to-peer (P2P) payments this year.
Social media platform X aims to deliver P2P payments this year
In a blog post, the San Francisco-headquartered social media platform, formerly known as Twitter prior to its October 2022 acquisition by Elon Musk, says the launch of the payments service for its business partners will generate “more user utility and new opportunities for commerce”.
Musk, who notably co-founded US payments giant PayPal in 1999, previously revealed his ambitions for the platform to venture into the payments space shortly after his acquisition of the company, including the eventual facilitation of P2P transactions, savings accounts and debit cards.
Since then, its payments subsidiary, X Payments, appears to be actively laying the groundwork in an attempt to bring these ambitions to fruition. According to filings with the US Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS), the subsidiary has obtained a money transmitter licence in 14 states so far, including Arizona, Mississippi, Georgia, Wyoming, and most recently, Arkansas. The licences enable the platform to process payments and move money within the appointed state.
Building on this, the platform partnered with Israeli social investing platform eToro in April 2023 to offer its users access to stocks, cryptocurrencies and other forms of financial assets. The following July, Musk confirmed via the platform that X would add “comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world… in the months to come”.
It’s currently unknown exactly when its P2P payments service will arrive, or in what capacity. X did not respond to FinTech Futures‘ request for comment. The blog post revealing the service’s arrival also makes no mention of when any other form of financial service, such as savings accounts or debit cards, will potentially be launched.
When these services do arrive, they’ll not only be competing with the incumbent players active in North America’s financial market, but also with other Big Tech players like Apple, which went live with its savings account offering and a buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
