21 August 2023

A few weeks ago, the world woke up to an ‘X’ where the familiar blue and white bird used to be, and notifications were coming through to people’s phones, showing a new logo and the app’s name as ‘X’. This was Elon Musk’s next step in turning the platform once known as Twitter into an ‘everything app’ and this not the first time he has tried to create this.

In 1999, X.com first hit the world as an online bank. Then in 2000, merged with software company Confinity. The same year of the merge Musk was removed as the CEO and in 2002 PayPal was sold to eBay.

Then in 2022, Musk purchased Twitter and in July 2023 Twitter became ‘X’, with plans to make it an app that does absolutely everything. Musk has said Twitter was acquired by X Corp as an accelerant for X, the everything app to be created. In June last year, Musk told Twitter staff that the company could emulate WeChat.

What is WeChat?

It’s an ‘everything app’ in China – it’s a communication app, a social media app, ecommerce app, you can hail a taxi, buy things in the physical world, make doctors appointment and do your personal banking.

However, Musk isn’t the only one to consider this type of app, as Microsoft is known to have also thought about building a ‘super app’.

There is logic to Musk’s ambitions for the platform, as many accounts link payment options to their profile. However, critics say that it would be hard for this kind of app to get traction as there is already easy access to all kind of goods and services through smart phones via well-established players such as uber, JustEat, PayPal and public transport apps, such as Trainline. 

WeChat was able to dominate the market in China as it was built more than a decade ago when the rise of the smartphone had only just begun. But now we have so many different apps and the actual volume of apps on our smart phones would be huge competition for ‘X’ to go up against.

Nest Steps for X

Musk recently posted on X to let people know that, over the coming months, he plans to “add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world” via X.

So, will ‘X’ work here? Do you want an everything app? Do you trust one app for everything?


Written by: Amy Johnson

*Please note that the above information has been gathered through secondary research. The information provided is not based on our opinion. You should seek further guidance and information before making an informed decision.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/29/elon-musk-wechat-twitter-rebranding-everything-app-for-west
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66333633
https://time.com/6170834/elon-musk-business-timeline-twitter/
https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/elon-musk-wants-to-build-an-everything-app/999e23b2-03a5-442b-8f6f-eb9423a6a66d