Elon Musk’s revived $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter sparked fresh debate over what the billionaire will do with the service if he eventually owns it.
On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that purchasing Twitter is an “accelerant to creating X, the all the things app.” He didn’t provide further details.
Musk could also be hinting toward so-called “super apps” that are popular in China and other parts of Asia and pioneered by the likes of Chinese technology giant Tencent.
Super apps is a term to explain an app that always acts as a one-stop shop for all of your mobile needs. For instance, you may order a taxi or food via the app and at the identical time do payments and messaging. This eliminates the necessity to have multiple apps for various functions.
Chinese app WeChat, run by Tencent, is the largest super app on the earth, with over a billion users.
In WeChat, users can message people, do mobile banking, pay for things online or in store by scanning a barcode, play games, post videos, do online shopping, hail a automotive and plenty of other things.
When Musk talks about “the all the things app,” he may very well be occupied with WeChat.
The Tesla CEO has previously expressed admiration for WeChat calling the app “great” during a town hall with Twitter employees in June. Musk said there isn’t a WeChat equivalent outside of China.
“And I believe that there is a real opportunity to create that,” Musk told employees. “You mainly survive WeChat in China since it’s so useful and so helpful to your every day life. And I believe if we could achieve that, and even near that with Twitter, it will be an immense success.”
Musk said that he wants not less than a billion people using Twitter, up from 237.8 million at the top of the second quarter.
Tencent runs the ever-present Chinese messaging app WeChat. The corporate has a brief form video feature with within the app and has began to monetize that through video ads within the feed. Tencent said such ads could develop into a “substantial” income in the longer term.
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One in all WeChat’s biggest features is WeChat Pay. It is a feature where users can scan a barcode in a store to pay via their mobile or they’ll send money to friends via the chat function. WeChat Pay can be used for purchases online.
Musk said throughout the town hall that he thinks that payments inside Twitter could be an “interesting thing to do.”
Nevertheless, super apps like WeChat have not really taken off in a giant way in Europe, the U.S. and other western markets.
WeChat meanwhile is heavily censored in China, something Musk is unlikely to do with Twitter, given his past criticisms of the platform’s content moderation strategy which the billionaire feels has stifled free speech.
