The billionaire said X users would be able to conduct their “entire financial world” on the app.
Elon Musk is preparing to transform X, formerly known as Twitter, into a social-media service where users can manage their “entire financial world” as part of his vision for an “everything app.”
The billionaire said in a post on X on Monday that his $44 billion Twitter buyout was an “accelerant” for building a super app, which bundles several different services on top of its existing functions.
“This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing,” he said. “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.”
Musk added that in the months to come, new features would be added to X that would give users “the ability to conduct your entire financial world.” The Twitter name did not make sense in that context, he said, “so we must bid adieu to the bird.”
The push to become an “everything app” that adds financial services to X marks the latest drastic move by Musk to shake up the tech company and boost profits after his highly leveraged takeover and online antics saddled it with debt and scared off advertisers.
It’s not yet clear what kind of financial services Musk wants to introduce to X, but a report from the FT in January suggested Twitter had started to apply for regulatory licenses in the US that would allow it to introduce payments.
Several of these initiatives, as well as the rollout of the new blue-check subscription service, had been led by former product manager Esther Crawford. However, she was cut by Musk in February as part of a round of layoffs.
The shakeup also comes as Musk tries to see off the threat from Threads, a platform similar to X, which was launched by Mark Zuckerberg amid a period of chaos for X.
X did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside regular working hours.