Elon Musk’s X Makes Progress Towards Launching Payment Services
(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, received a money transfer license on Monday from Utah, the 15th U.S. state to grant approval as the company explores offering payment features.
Utah issued the permit Friday, according to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry online database.
It gives the company the ability to facilitate money transfers, similar to PayPal’s Venmo, and allows the company to send money to each other.
The payments shift could help X diversify its business beyond digital advertising, which has suffered setbacks since Musk’s ownership.
Some major advertisers suspended spending or fled the platform after Musk last year settled with an X user who espoused an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. Speaking at the New York Times DealBook event later that month, the billionaire CEO made cheeky comments about brands that had pulled their ads on X.
After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk has said he plans to transform the company into an “everything app” similar to the popular Chinese app WeChat, allowing users to send messages but also hail a taxi or pay merchants.
The company received its first state money transfer license in New Hampshire in June of last year, and was also approved in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Maryland and Michigan.
