Musk's X to offer investment, trading in 'super app' push: Report
X CEO Linda Yaccarino has said users will soon be able to make investments or trades on the social media platform, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, a move to support billionaire owner Elon Musk's vision to create an "everything app."
ADVERTISEMENT In an interview with the publisher, Yaccarino said the company was exploring the introduction of an X credit or debit card, which could come as soon as this year.
Musk, who in April 2022 clinched a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter and later rebranded it as X, has signaled plans to model it as a "super app," similar to China's WeChat.
The social media platform did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. "2025 X will connect you in ways never thought possible. X TV, X Money, Grok and more," Yaccarino wrote in a post in December last year.
Payments giant Visa and X partnered to offer direct payment solutions to customers of the social media app, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this year.
ADVERTISEMENT A super app, or what Musk refers to as an "everything app," has been described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services for users such as messaging, social networking, payments and e-commerce shopping.
X hired NBCUniversal advertising chief Yaccarino as CEO in 2023 amid advertiser exodus from the platform as they worried that their ads could appear next to inappropriate content.
ADVERTISEMENT
Yaccarino said that 96% of X's ad clients prior to acquisition had now come back to the platform, the Financial Times report said.
The company is poised for its first year of ad revenue growth this year since its acquisition by Musk, according to data from research firm Emarketer in March.
ADVERTISEMENT X had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to boycott the site and causing it to lose revenue.
(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
5 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Tesla joins Austin's self-driving race with launch of Robotaxi service
Austin is known for live music, Texas' premier public university and being home to tech companies. It is also becoming a laboratory for autonomous vehicles. Driverless Waymo taxis, owned by Google's parent company, regularly drop off diners at Austin's famous barbecue joints. Box-shaped, four-wheeled robots operated by Avride, a start-up working with Uber Eats, deliver Thai takeout to customers downtown. Zoox, owned by Amazon, and Volkswagen are separately testing autonomous taxis here. Tesla, the electric car company based in Austin, recently joined the party, rolling out self-driving Model Ys ahead of a taxi service that is expected to begin offering rides as soon as Sunday. The vehicles, which the company calls Robotaxis, are part of an audacious effort by Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, to leap ahead of Waymo, which dominates a nascent business that someday could be worth tens of billions of dollars and perhaps much more. But the busy streets of Austin show that Tesla will face significant competition and other challenges. It will have to engage in painstaking experimentation to perfect its technology, which some autonomous-driving experts have criticised for having fewer safeguards than those operated by Waymo and other companies. Also, Tesla is starting from behind. Waymo has been driving paying passengers for years in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and started its commercial service in Austin in March in partnership with Uber. Waymo said on Wednesday that it was applying for a permit from New York City to offer rides with a person behind the wheel. A change in state law would be required for fully autonomous rides. A small fleet of Tesla Robotaxis will begin carrying passengers in Austin on June 22, Musk said on X last week but added the company may delay the start of the service. But analysts expect the cars will be available only to company employees or invited guests. The service will probably not be available to the general public for several months, analysts said. Tesla is adapting its most advanced driver assistance software, already offered as an option on the cars it sells, to operate without human intervention. If this approach works, the company could quickly roll out driverless taxis around the world. Musk has said a software update could allow hundreds of thousands or even millions of existing Teslas to operate as autonomous taxis, making cheap driverless rides ubiquitous. But the approach Tesla is taking is unusual. Waymo and other companies working to offer self-driving taxi services have been developing their technologies for years, painstakingly mapping streets and training their software to avoid hitting pedestrians, cyclists, garbage trucks, fire engines and all manner of other things found on public roads. 'FSD is an immature system,' said Matthew Wansley, a professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York, referring to what Tesla calls its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Another challenge for Tesla is that its self-driving system is under investigation by federal officials. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into whether Tesla's technology was responsible for crashes in conditions where the road was obscured by fog, dust, bright light or darkness. One crash led to the death of a pedestrian.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
$230mn deal: Partners Group to acquire 75% of Infinity Fincorp
Mumbai: Swiss private equity firm Partners Group is set to acquire True North's controlling stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions, a Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC), outbidding rivals Advent International and Creador, said people familiar with the matter. Partners Group will be buying 65% stake in Infinity, which offers micro loans against property , from Mumbai-based PE firm True North, the people said, adding it would also make a small primary capital infusion into the company. Upon completion of the deal, Partners is expected to own a total 70-75% of the shadow lender for about $230 million, the people said. Partners has signed an exclusivity agreement with True North and is expected to sign the shareholder agreement in the next few days, the people said. The transaction will also give a monetisation route to Infinity's angel investors. Founded in 2016 as a unit of National Bulk Handling Corporation with seed funding from Indium IV Holdings-a fund advised by True North, Infinity provides secured loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in underserved Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
$230mn deal: Partners Group to acquire 75% of Infinity Fincorp
Mumbai: Swiss private equity firm Partners Group is set to acquire True North's controlling stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions, a Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC), outbidding rivals Advent International and Creador, said people familiar with the matter. ADVERTISEMENT Partners Group will be buying 65% stake in Infinity, which offers micro loans against property, from Mumbai-based PE firm True North, the people said, adding it would also make a small primary capital infusion into the company. Upon completion of the deal, Partners is expected to own a total 70-75% of the shadow lender for about $230 million, the people said. Partners has signed an exclusivity agreement with True North and is expected to sign the shareholder agreement in the next few days, the people said. The transaction will also give a monetisation route to Infinity's angel investors. Founded in 2016 as a unit of National Bulk Handling Corporation with seed funding from Indium IV Holdings-a fund advised by True North, Infinity provides secured loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in underserved Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
