Elon Musk launches his own payment system

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. Since then, he has repeatedly spoken about his intention to transform the platform along the lines of China's WeChat. This service allows users not only to communicate but also to pay for purchases, order food, call a taxi, and handle a host of other everyday tasks in a single app.

X Money will enter public beta testing next month. A partnership with Visa, established last year, provides the technical infrastructure for payment processing. The introduction of financial services will allow X to diversify its revenue, which currently relies primarily on advertising. Transaction fees could become a new, stable source of income.

Initially, access to the service will likely be limited—perhaps by region or invitation only. This is standard practice for financial products where reliability and security are critical. The completion date for beta testing has not yet been announced.

The Western payment app market is already quite saturated. Popular services include Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, and Apple Pay. To attract users, X Money must offer either more favorable terms or unique features unavailable to its competitors.

The launch of the beta version will allow us to evaluate X Money's functionality in practice and determine whether it can become a real competitor to existing payment systems or whether it will remain a niche product.