X Gets Several Payment Licenses As It Expands Offerings

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has secured several money transmitter licenses. The licenses have been obtained across seven states in the United States. X plans to use these offerings to boost its presence in the payments industry.

X gets a payments license in seven states

X purchased Twitter for $43 billion towards the end of last year. Since his purchase, Musk has focused on transforming the offerings on this social media platform. Musk’s ambition since purchasing this social media platform has been to transform it into a financial super app.

If X managed to integrate payment services on Twitter, the offerings would be similar to those of the leading Chinese social media platform, WeChat. Musk has severally spoken about his plans to adopt payments on Twitter, including on a Twitter spaces session.

If payments are brought to Twitter, the platform will emulate PayPal, which Musk also co-founded. The plan is to create the infrastructure that Twitter can use to process payments while integrating debit cards and bank accounts.

The new payment licenses secured by X have been obtained from the states of Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Maryland, Rhode Island, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Securing these licenses is the first step taken by the social media platform to realize its vision.

Musk envisions having a platform where users can link their online bank accounts to the social media platform. The company will later transform its offerings to support debit cards, checks, and other financial products.

Twitter has already integrated some financial features on the platform. The social media firm adopted a tipping feature, allowing users to reward creators on the platform. This feature also allowed people to charge subscription fees for exclusive content like newsletters.

In April, Twitter launched a feature allowing users to access financial assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies. This offering was supported through a partnership deal with the eToro retail social trading platform.

Musk’s recent rebranding of Twitter into X also comes as the company seeks to adopt the early days of PayPal. During its launch, PayPal was known as X.com before changing its name. As such, Twitter operating as X will help Musk return to the payments industry.

X launches audio and video calling features

Another feature will also be launched on X, audio, and video calling services. Musk recently revealed that the company would offer audio and video calling services on Android, iOS, PC, and Mac devices.

Once this feature is launched on X, it will allow audio and video calls without users having a phone number. In a tweet, Musk said that X was like the “worldwide address book” and different offerings, including calls, was suitable for it. Musk has not provided a timeline for when calls will be launched on the platform.