Creating a WeChat for the West
Musk's goal is to make X a versatile platform similar to China’s WeChat, where users can interact in multiple ways including messaging, social media, and even payment services.
The transition towards an "everything app" involves supporting various media formats alongside banking and payment services, which are even speculated to include cryptocurrency options.
Why, X?
The rebranding to "X" is clearly inspired by Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and even the Tesla model X. Elon Musk has stated a few times that he sees X becoming the preferred communication platform for space travel, which even today is still very complicated and it takes lots of time to send data via satellite to space shuttles.
It also has the potential to be integrated into Starlink, which would bypass any need for X to be tied to standard internet infrastructure, making it almost like the evolution of HAM radio.
This starts to make sense when considering that Musk has entertained the idea of creating his own phone company connected directly to the Starlink satellites.
X’s Impact on Advertising
The transition to an "everything app" and the introduction of subscriptions could potentially alter the advertising ecosystem on the platform. With a broader range of services and user interactions, X could amass more data on user preferences, behaviors, and demographics.
This enriched user data could be leveraged by advertisers to create more targeted and dynamic ad campaigns. Also, the "all-in-one" nature of X could increase user engagement and time spent on the app, providing advertisers with more opportunities to reach their target audiences.
Taking the company private and introducing subscription models could potentially reduce the need of advertising revenue, possibly affecting the platform's advertising policies and campaign structures.
However, it could also create a more curated and user-friendly advertising experience, which in turn could attract more advertisers looking for a quality audience.
Given the enhanced data collection and user engagement, in the future advertisers could possibly find X a more appealing platform for running sophisticated, data-driven campaigns, potentially making advertising on X more effective and dynamic, possibly rivaling Google and Meta if done correctly.