Elon Musk laid out his long-term vision for bringing payments to Twitter — which could include offering high-yield money market accounts, debit cards and peer-to-peer transactions — as the social media company presented the documentation to authorities. of the United States to become a financial services business.
The billionaire entrepreneur outlined his ideas for offering the services during a conversation with advertisers on Twitter Spaces on Monday.
In a sign that Musk is taking steps to integrate some payment services with the platform, Twitter on Friday registered with the U.S. Treasury as a payment processor, according to the documents. Companies involved in money transfers, foreign exchange or check cashing are required to report to the Treasury’s Financial Crime Repression Network.
Musk has a background in financial technology: in 1999, he co-founded X.com, one of the first online banks, which later became part of PayPal.
The comments are the strongest sign yet of Musk’s ambition to turn the company he bought for $44 billion into an “everything app” inspired by China’s WeChat – which is a single space for messages, payments and purchases – although the move is likely to expose Twitter to new regulatory challenges.
Musk said Wednesday that once users paid for his $7.99 premium subscription to Twitter Blue, “Now we can tell you have a balance in your account. Do you want to send money to someone else on Twitter? we pre-fill the account”.
He added that if users want to log out of the system, they can link their online banking account to their Twitter account. “So the next step would be to offer an extremely attractive money market account to get an extremely high yield on your balance,” he said. “And then add debit cards, checks…”
The remarks follow another day of activity and experimentation on Twitter, as Musk tries to get the ailing company to work amid falling ad revenue and concerns over content moderation. He laid off nearly half of the company’s global workforce on Friday.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported on the company’s FinCEN registration.
Confusion reigned over Musk’s attempt to change the site’s user verification policies. Less than 24 hours after releasing a “gray checkmark” on Wednesday to label official accounts, Musk suddenly backed off amid uncertainty over his relationship to the blue badge, which he has made available to all users who sign up for the paid service Twitter Blue.
A Twitter product executive later clarified that the “official” label was initially only being rolled out to government and commercial entities, not individuals.
“Please note that Twitter will do a lot of silly things over the next few months,” Musk tweeted. “Let’s keep what works and change what doesn’t.”
Meanwhile, the Tesla chief executive tried to reassure advertisers that the platform will remain a safe place for their brands. On the issue of forged identities, he warned that any user who uses his blue badge to impersonate brands or individuals will be suspended, adding that “we’ll keep your $8.”
Musk, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” previously said he would not make any significant changes to content moderation without convening a content moderation board.
On Wednesday, he said it could take Twitter “a few months” to create such a board, adding that it would be an “advisory board” rather than a “command board.”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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