Twitter is reportedly getting ready to introduce a digital payments service in line with Elon Musk’s plans to turn the micro-blogging platform into an ‘everything app’ like China’s WeChat. Twitter is already believed to be working on a video chat feature that will allow users to make and receive video calls, like FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Along with digital payments and video chat, Musk has promised to include many other features with ‘Twitter 2.0,’ including voice calls and encrypted DMs.
Twitter has reportedly been applying for regulatory licenses and working on the software needed to enable digital payments on the platform, according to the Financial Times. The report says that the company’s fintech push is being led by Esther Crawford, Twitter’s director of product management. Musk intends to use fiat currencies to start off with on the platform, but also facilitate crypto payments at some stage in the future. Musk had earlier said that he wants the company to get into fintech services, such as peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts, and debit cards, although the exact details remain a mystery for now.
Twitter Getting Into The Digital Payments Market
Twitter’s move into financial services is yet another effort by Musk to monetize the micro-blogging platform that has traditionally relied on advertising for revenue. While the company introduced the ‘Blue’ subscription service before Musk acquired it in a $44 billion deal last year, the new owner has since raised the rates and included new perks to the service as a way to increase revenues, especially in the face of dwindling advertising income. One of the advantages of subscribing to the new service is a verified blue checkmark.
Twitter has reportedly been working for months towards becoming a player in the digital payments scene. According to a regulatory filing cited by FT, the company registered with the U.S. Treasury as a payments processor back in November. It is now reportedly in the process of applying for the state licenses needed to launch the service. The company hopes to get all the necessary clearances in time to launch the service “within one year.” Once it is up and running in the U.S., the company will look to expand its payments platform globally.
The U.S. digital payments scene is choc-a-bloc with a number of existing players like Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle, among others. While they’re likely to offer Twitter stiff competition, Musk believes that Twitter’s reach and scale will give it an inherent advantage. Either way, it will be interesting to see how things go in the future, but this is definitely not the last anyone is hearing about the upcoming Twitter feature.
