Twitter, an App for financial services. Musk’s bet to bring it to 250 billion

Make Twitter a cornerstone of the financial life of its users. Here is the development plan he has in mind Elon Musk for the social network of chirps. For him it would be a return to the past, given that he was one of the creators of PayPal. In that case, at least personally, it didn’t go too well for him. Of course, he now imagines a different fate.

Musk and Twitter, a start with many stumbles

In the midst of the “blue check” dispute, i.e. the request for a payment in exchange for the certification of user profiles by the social network, is the Wall Street Journal to reconstruct what would be the long-range plans of the volcanic and controversial entrepreneur for the company which he acquired a few months ago with a check for 44 billion dollars. Tormented months, both for the ax dropped on the personnel, and for some attitudes of Musk himself (who, for example, had an argument with an employee about his disability), but also and above all for the difficult results from an economic point of view. So much so that his valuation plummeted to $20 billion.

PayPal precedent

However, now Musk has put it in his sights the transformation and relaunch of Twitter in a company that according to his design could be worth up to 250 billion dollars. And the Wall Street Journal to tell his strategy, based on what Musk himself has indicated, speaking with Twitter employees, speaking of “grandiose” plans. At the center of the plan there is, in fact, make society the center of financial life of its users, in a return to the past of the entrepreneur who recalls the experience of X.com, now PayPal (but Musk himself bought back the X.com domain a few years ago, for “sentimental” reasons).

It was not an experience with a happy ending, because if on the one hand the success gave Musk the foundation to then build his fortune in Tesla and SpaceX, on the other hand he was ousted from the company while he was away on a trip with his first wife, thus interrupting his development plan.

Finance to increase revenues

The news that Musk now wants to push financial services has been in the air for some time. Already at the end of January the Financial Times he told of how he had moved to obtain the necessary licenses to activate the exchange of money between users and the related software development. “I think we can become the largest financial institution in the world,” said the South African entrepreneur again at a Morgan Stanley event last month. In addition to money transfers, Musk is also thinking of offering savings accounts with relative interest.

According to analysts, adding these features could definitely help flesh out the revenue base of the social network (dropped from 5 to 3 billion last year) which is now done almost entirely by the advertising business.

Knots to untie

Obviously, this strategy is not started on a simple plan. The use of financial services in a very “social” key is typical of Asian markets, from WeChat to AliPay. And Musk himself recalled that his business plan for what would become PayPal has been in the drawer since the year 2000. But it is also true that the Asian tech giants have clashed against less structured competition from traditional financial institutions, while Musk should cross arms with subjects who already control these areas.

As you remember the wsj, then, the first step for the license towards the Treasury has been taken, but a license is needed in every state in which it wants to develop the services and this step would still be missing in California itself. And we know how much Musk himself has repeatedly struggled in his relationship with the authorities, also due to his poorly calibrated tweets that have generated upheaval on the financial markets. The absence of concrete indications of development and disclosure plans on these aspects does not even help the entrepreneur.