In this picture illustration, Elon Musk’s picture is displayed on a telephone display screen in entrance of a pc display screen displaying the brand new brand of ‘Twitter’.
Harun Ozalp | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
When Elon Musk was within the course of of shopping for Twitter final yr, there was a whole lot of debate about his plans for the app.
In October, the billionaire mentioned shopping for Twitter was an “accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” with out offering additional particulars. But it did spark comparisons with China’s WeChat, the messaging service run by Chinese big Tencent.
On Monday, Musk formally modified Twitter’s well-known chicken brand to an “X,” marking his push to vary the platform into one thing greater than only a social media service.
“In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world,” Musk said late Monday, re-iterating that the acquisition befell to speed up the transfer towards the “everything app.”
Newly-appointed CEO of the corporate Linda Yaccarino mentioned “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”
These objectives laid out by Musk and Yaccarino sound very very like the concept of a “super app” which was pioneered in China and has taken off in different components of Asia.
Musk known as WeChat ‘nice’
Super apps check with a kind of app that permit customers to hold out a number of features with out having to go away the app. For instance, an app may embody social media features, funds, resort and flight bookings and taxi hailing.
The largest tremendous app on this planet is known as WeChat which is run by Chinese expertise big Tencent and has over 1.3 billion customers.
WeChat is primarily an prompt messaging app like WhatsApp. But additionally it is has funds and customers can entry different apps inside it resembling e-commerce and banking.
While China pioneered the tremendous app, the concept has taken off in different components of Asia. Singapore-headquartered ride-hailing agency Grab has expanded into different areas like meals supply and funds. South Korea’s Kakao is one other instance.
Musk has probably taken inspiration from WeChat, an app he known as “great” final yr. Musk mentioned there isn’t any WeChat equal outdoors of China.
“I think that there’s a real opportunity to create that,” Musk instructed staff. “You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so useful and so helpful to your daily life. And I think if we could achieve that, or even close to that with Twitter, it would be an immense success.”
Will an ‘all the things app’ work outdoors of Asia?
WeChat took off in China due to the distinctive web panorama there, one the place many American on-line companies resembling Twitter and Google are blocked. This has given an opportunity for homegrown expertise corporations to ascertain dominance within the web house.
Tencent is one among these. With WeChat it operates the most important messaging service within the nation. WeChat Pay is among the two largest cellular funds companies in China, the opposite being Alipay which is run by Ant Group, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce big Alibaba.
Alipay itself can be one other tremendous app.
Tencent has managed to create an app this measurement as a result of it runs its personal funds and social media service. But the corporate has additionally invested in different main corporations like e-commerce agency JD.com and and meals supply firm Meituan. This has allowed Tencent to combine their companies into WeChat. Tencent can be one of many world’s largest on-line gaming corporations and that has given it additional content material to place inside WeChat.
Developers may also create so-called “mini programs” inside WeChat. These are stripped down variations of full apps but it surely means a consumer does not must obtain dozens of different apps and might simply use WeChat for practically all the things.
In components of southeast Asia, ride-hailing agency Grab has expanded into monetary companies and meals supply, within the absence of a plethora of rivals.
Creating an excellent app within the U.S. or Europe could also be far more of a problem. Online funds, an space Musk desires to push into, are fragmented with no single firm dominating the house. U.S. and Europe nonetheless rely closely on debit and bank card programs of cost. Payments in China are accomplished with a fast response or QR code, which is completely different to the U.S. and Europe.
In ride-hailing and meals supply, there’s huge competitors. Naturally, Musk’s X can be a challenger to different social media corporations like these below Meta’s umbrella. That might make collaboration with different corporations powerful.
These are simply among the challenges and that is with out going into areas resembling competitors in promoting and who owns the info within the occasion X collaborates with different corporations.
But additionally there is a chance for X in that Musk sees it extra as a broader communication app reasonably than simply quick posts. He has dramatically elevated the character limits for posts for individuals who subscribe to Twitter Blue, for instance. That may very well be a place to begin, to show Twitter into extra of a communication instrument that retains customers hooked. Then Musk might take into consideration including different instruments like funds that he has already hinted at.
Ultimately although, attempting to show X into something like WeChat goes to be a mammoth activity, not least as a result of the elements that has helped the Chinese app’s success — whether or not its a mobile-first market in China or a extra concentrated variety of gamers within the web house — are usually not current within the U.S. or Europe.
Source: www.cnbc.com”