Elon Musk Will Turn Twitter Into Something Else Entirely?
Elon Musk has asserted his intentions to turn Twitter into an "everything app," akin to the likes of China's WeChat, once his purchase agreement is finalized.
Elon Musk has an idea to turn Twitter into a completely new application. Like his satellite company SpaceX, Musk intends to add the 24th letter of the alphabet to the social media platform’s name, as well as different purposes and functions. Though there isn’t much information about the transformation, the entrepreneur stated that he wants to change Twitter into an “everything app.”
Now that Musk has been legally and federally forced to fulfill his purchase of Twitter, he has more openly discussed his plans to upgrade the social media platform to fit his other business ventures. During the purchasing saga, the SpaceX CEO expressed wants to convert Twitter to closely resemble China’s WeChat app, which has video calling technology, private chatting, and payment transactions. Though Musk has overtly stated his intentions, he hasn’t successfully purchased Twitter yet, so there’s no contract plan for when these updates will occur.
One of the most substantial hurdles Elon Musk would face from this impending transformation is the business model similarities to other companies. Musk’s WeChat proposal would be catching up with other communication and media platforms that already have or attempted to add these capabilities. Facebook’s parent company Meta has relentlessly tried to apply video chat, messaging, shopping, and gaming software to its platforms, but sadly it still relies on advertisements to gain revenue.
Other companies are racing to transform their applications into super apps, including Google, Uber, Snapchat, and TikTok. Each company has tried to expand its abilities so that its users will open specific applications more frequently. Though substantial social media companies are putting in the effort, none have significantly changed their demographic, according to AP News, probably because users already have designated apps for functions that TikTok and Uber are attempting to add.
Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, also believes that creating super apps is less successful because people use “different apps for different activities.” Smartphone owners are accustomed to having specific apps for each designated purpose, making it harder for users to eliminate old apps to focus on an all-purpose one. Enberg also explained that a super app would likely utilize more data if it had multiple functions, which is a massive disadvantage for companies that want to boost their app’s reliability and efficiency.
Most of Elon Musk’s upcoming decisions have been linked to his Twitter profile, where he often spews ideas and thoughts without evidence or needed contemplation. He cryptically tweeted about converting Twitter to an app called “X,” which would be the proposed super app with multiple functions. The only other time he discussed these plans was at a shareholder meeting in August, where he told a crowd that he had a new direction for the platform’s engineering team.
At the same meeting, Musk discussed integrating his previous payment app trials with the social media website. Early in his entrepreneurial career, he attempted to make an online banking application similar to Venmo or Zelle. He stated that purchasing Twitter could accelerate his online banking attempts and allow him the opportunity to pursue combining the media site with virtual payment software.
