X (formerly known as Twitter) is gradually expanding its social media platform capabilities into the trade and investment sectors, as part of Elon Musk's vision to transform it into an "all-in-one app". Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, stated at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that X will add services including financial transactions and investments, moving towards becoming a super platform that integrates communication, payments, and shopping.
Musk envisions X as the American version of WeChat, not only as a tool for information exchange but also integrating peer-to-peer payments, income distribution for content creators, shopping, fund storage and management, and even developing X-branded credit and debit cards. According to Yaccarino, X's financial subsidiary, X Money, will initially launch in the United States and then expand globally, building a complete fintech ecosystem.
However, X's ambitions also come with challenges. In terms of compliance, especially in areas such as financial licensing and anti-money laundering regulations, the platform will face strict scrutiny. Since Musk's acquisition in 2022, advertising revenue has also significantly declined due to brand safety issues, with some advertisers remaining cautious to this day. Although Yaccarino claims that 96% of advertising clients have returned, accusations of X pressuring advertisers are still brewing, and X has also sued the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and some brands, claiming they organized a boycott.
X's latest move in the fintech sector is establishing a partnership with the prediction market platform Polymarket. On June 6, the two parties announced that Polymarket will become X's official prediction market partner, integrating its political, sports, and other prediction data into the X platform. Users will soon be able to see market odds, AI annotations, and trend fluctuations in posts, with assistance from the Grok chatbot. Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket, stated that this integration will allow users to engage with real-time information and predictions in a smarter way.
Although the details of the agreement have not been fully disclosed, this move indicates that X will further integrate fintech and artificial intelligence, pushing its platform capabilities beyond traditional social networks. Notably, shortly before the announcement of the Polymarket partnership, prediction market competitor Kalshi withdrew a statement about a collaboration with X, indirectly strengthening the strategic exclusivity of X's relationship with Polymarket.
This series of actions reflects Musk's core ambition to transform X into the "global digital life infrastructure" through a diverse integration strategy.
