Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
X chief executive Linda Yaccarino has said that users will “soon” be able to make investments or trades on the social media platform, as she outlined a push into financial services in owner Elon Musk’s quest to build an “everything app”.
“You’ll be able to come to X and be able to transact your whole financial life on the platform,” Yaccarino said in an interview with the Financial Times at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. “And that’s whether I can pay you for the pizza that we shared last night or make an investment or a trade. So that’s the future.”
She added that the company was also exploring the introduction of an X credit or debit card, which could come as soon as this year.
The proposed foray into financial services comes as Musk seeks to model the platform, which he bought in 2022, after China’s WeChat — a one-stop shop for messaging, payments and shopping.
X has already said it will be introducing X Money, a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment service, with Visa as its first partner later this year.
Yaccarino on Tuesday added that X Money would launch in the US first before being rolled out elsewhere, and said that the service would allow users to buy merchandise, store value or tip creators on the platform.
“A whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem is going to emerge on the platform that does not exist today,” she said.
A big push into financial services would, however, open X up to burdensome regulatory challenges, such as compliance with licensing and money laundering regulations.
X has struggled to return to financial health after advertisers, which account for the majority of its revenues, left in droves following Musk’s $44bn acquisition of the platform then known as Twitter. Many cited concerns about his hands-off approach to moderation, meaning their ads could be placed near objectionable content, as well as the billionaire entrepreneur’s own provocative use of the platform.
Tensions between X’s leadership and advertisers have flared. In the interview, Yaccarino pushed back against allegations that the social media company recently threatened brands with lawsuits if they failed to buy advertising on X.
She dismissed as “hearsay” a Wall Street Journal report last week, which said that half a dozen brands, including Verizon and Ralph Lauren, had struck deals to buy ads after receiving the threats. “It’s unnamed sources, random third-party commenters,” Yaccarino said.
X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit last summer against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of brands and ad agencies, as well as several other brands. The social media company accused the group of violating competition law by co-ordinating an “illegal boycott” under the guise of an online safety initiative.
Over time, X has added or removed several brands from the complaint. It dropped Unilever from the lawsuit after it restarted advertising on the social media platform in October.
Yaccarino said that 96 per cent of the company’s advertising clients prior to acquisition had now come back to the platform, and that the company would reach its target of returning to its 2022 advertising levels “super soon”.
Some advertisers and agencies at Cannes told the FT that they were still cautious about running ads on X and sceptical that it would hit its targets in the near future — pointing to the toxicity of content on the platform.
Others had felt pressured to advertise, according to people familiar with the discussions, with one alleging that they were told to spend a specific amount or face a lawsuit. Musk’s close relationship with US President Donald Trump had made advertisers feel more anxious to comply with the demands, the person said.
Research firm Emarketer projects that X’s revenue will increase to $2.3bn this year, compared with $1.9bn a year ago. However, global sales in 2022, when Musk took over, were $4.1bn.
Yaccarino also touted plans to bolster X’s artificial intelligence capabilities after it was bought by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up, for $45bn in March. She argued that the tie-up would help better deliver advertising against trending content in real time, adding that she now had “double the amount of engineers” working to improve the platform.