Yahoo Finance Elon Musk promises to turn Twitter into ‘everything app’ called X
Elon Musk plans to turn Twitter into an “everything app” after reviving plans to buy the social media company for $44bn (£38bn).
After a u-turn over his takeover, the Tesla billionaire said: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”
Mr Musk had been trying to back out of a deal to buy the social media business but announced a surprise reversal on Tuesday, saying he would purchase the company at $54.20 per share. He was facing a court battle as Twitter pressed him to go through with the takeover.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest man who is worth $220bn, gave no details of what his “X” app would look like, but he claimed buying Twitter “accelerates X by three to five years, but I could be wrong”.
He has previously expressed an interest in creating a “super app” similar to China’s WeChat.
WeChat, which is used by more than 1 billion people in China, combines instant messaging, video calls and mobile payments.
Mr Musk told Twitter staff earlier this year: “Think of it like WeChat in China, which is great now, but there's no WeChat equivalent outside of China. There’s a real opportunity to create that.”
He added: “You basically live on WeChat in China because it's so helpful, so useful to daily life. I think if we achieve that or come even close to that with Twitter, that would be a success.”
In text messages between Mr Musk, his friends and advisers that were revealed as part of his court battle with Twitter, he revealed some details of his thinking about social media.
In one note to his brother, Kimbal, Mr Musk said: “I have an idea for a blockchain social media system that does both payments and short texts/links like Twitter. You have to pay a tiny amount to register your message on the chain, which will cut out the vast majority of spam and bots.”
Blockchain is the digital ledger technology used by Bitcoin, which could be used for payments.
He later said his “plan B” is a “blockchain-based version of Twitter” where users would “pay maybe 0.1 Doge per comment”. Dogecoin is a joke cryptocurrency that Mr Musk has promoted in the past.
Later, however, Mr Musk said in a text to his main banker that a “blockchain-based version of Twitter isn’t possible” because it would be too slow.
In other messages, he appears sympathetic to the idea of introducing paid-for membership tiers.
The billionaire added his vision for Twitter was “not some right wing nuthouse” but that it would be “broadly inclusive as possible”.
Twitter has said it plans to go through with the sale to Mr Musk. Twitter shares jumped 21pc on news that the deal was back on. Shares in Tesla, his electric car company, climbed 2pc.
In July, Mr Musk attempted to tear up his takeover offer, claiming Twitter management’s figures for the number of fake accounts and “bots” on the social network were misleadingly low.
Twitter subsequently sued him in the Delaware Chancery Court to force him to go through with the agreement. The trial was due to begin on October 17.
Analysts said the billionaire had come to the conclusion that he could lose his court battle against Twitter. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: “We continue to believe Musk saw the writing on the wall and knew his chances of a victory in Delaware were slim to none with the best path accepting the current deal and move forward.”
Mr Musk’s other companies include rocket venture SpaceX and Starlink, the satellite broadband company, as well as his electric car company Tesla.
