Since assuming control of Twitter, Elon Musk has introduced more innovations to the platform than Twitter executives had in the preceding decade. Despite legacy media’s relentless hysteria, Twitter engagement actually appears to be at an all-time high. Its social media competitors, on the other hand, seem to be experiencing existential crises.
TikTok, the most popular and fastest-growing social media app among young people, is under heavy scrutiny. Both Republican and Democratic politicians have expressed concerns over the app’s ties to the Chinese government. Meanwhile, the world’s largest social media business, Meta, appears intent on pouring tens of billions of dollars into developing its metaverse. Even if it’s at the expense of innovating its legacy products, Facebook and Instagram. And, of course, there’s Snap Inc., which has proven incapable of significantly expanding its market share and staying relevant alongside its rivals.
Therefore, the stage is set for the world’s most influential entrepreneur to transform Twitter into the dominant social media platform. But this begs the question, what specifically can Musk do to turn Twitter into a trillion-dollar company? The X app may be the solution.
The X App
Musk has indicated that he would like to transform Twitter into an all-purpose app named X, similar to WeChat. Owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, WeChat is China’s most popular social app, with over one billion users. It is an “everything app” that combines features from Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, PayPal, Uber, and Google.
The creation of an everything app akin to WeChat is an audacious goal. But there is no reason to think Musk cannot do it. This is, after all, the man who leads the most valuable automotive company in the world, revolutionized space travel, and helped create America’s most dominant fintech company, PayPal.
So we can expect, at the very least, that Musk will integrate a payment system comparable to PayPal or Venmo into Twitter. That alone would seriously enhance its functionality for consumers. Musk has also expressed his desire to prioritize and financially reward creator content more heavily on the platform. On this front, Musk has stated that he is considering reviving the short-form content app Vine. Vine disappeared from the web years ago, but Musk now owns it as a result of acquiring Twitter.
Musk’s synergy
In addition, as CEO of the world’s largest and most tech-forward automaker, Elon Musk can integrate transportation features into Twitter. It is not difficult to imagine the social media app having an Uber-like feature in the near future. As an added benefit, Musk will likely never have to worry about a labor shortage plaguing this potential sector of Twitter, given Tesla’s leadership in the area of robotaxis and Musk’s propensity to father children.
When it’s all said and done, the “Chief Twit’s” Twitter purchase may be regarded as one of the great business decisions of all time.
Ashton Cohen is an attorney, investor, writer, and host of Ashton Cohen: The ELECTile Dysfunction Podcast.
