If you were still in doubt, it appears he was not joking about his ambitions to make X (Twitter) a super app. They have the made a significant step in that effort. Elon Musk’s X has partnered with Visa to launch a real-time payment system.
The upcoming ‘X Money Account’ will support digital wallets, peer-to-peer payments linked to debit cards, and direct bank transfers, with Visa Direct facilitating these transactions.
Users will have the ability to make instant payments (kind of like how EcoCash and other mobile money accounts work here in Zimbabwe), directly from their X account.
This includes funding the wallet via Visa Direct, connecting a debit card for P2P transactions (which is like the ‘Send Money’ option in mobile money wallets here), and options for transferring money back to a bank account (or Wallet-to-Bank over here).
Simply put, this is what the X Money account offers:
- Securely and instantly fund their X Wallets via Visa Direct.
- Connect to their debit cards for peer-to-peer payments.
- Optionally transfer funds directly to bank accounts.
Visa is but the first partner, X intends to sign more. Muy crystal ball says Mastercard will jump on this, unless there were exclusivity agreements.
The X Money Account service is expected to debut later this year, although a specific launch date has not been provided.
Initially, the service will be available to users in the US, with no current information on international expansion or additional payment partners. If X can strike deals all over the world, this X Money account could be the silver bullet merchants here in Zimbabwe are begging for.
X has a global userbase and if connecting your bank account to your X account ends up meaning easy perr to peer transfers on X, that would be a game changer. Simply put, if it simplifies cross-border transfers it will be huge.
Musk aims to transform X into a multifunctional platform like China’s WeChat, integrating various services including messaging, payments, and more.
X’s ambitions may face regulatory scrutiny, particularly from US authorities concerned about the emergence of super apps and market competition. However, with Musk being friends with the president of the USA, who know, these next four years could see some of those closed doors opened.
lol. The Nazi bar fintech!