Elon Musk and WeChat: A (Not-So-Secret) Obsession
Elon Musk (马斯克) has never hidden his interest in China’s tech scene and particularly WeChat. The app has caught the attention of international tech moguls, including the world’s richest man.
Musk's admiration underscores his ambition to replicate WeChat’s model for X (formerly Twitter). However, his plans for an “everything app” face various challenges including substantial regulatory hurdles but also resistance from consumers.
In this post:
Why is Elon Musk interested in WeChat, and what does he want to do with X (formerly Twitter)?
How close is Musk to turning X into an “everything app” like WeChat?
What makes WeChat so successful in China, and why is it hard to copy?
Musk has openly communicated his fascination with WeChat’s model. Following his substantial acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion, he announced plans to rebrand it as ‘X’ to bring to Western audiences the all-in-one platform experience that WeChat offers in China.
“You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success.” – Elon Musk
Musk envisions ‘X’ as an ‘everything app’, like WeChat, by merging messaging, news, shopping, and banking all under one roof. Yet, bringing a similar scale to the U.S. faces hurdles, particularly in regulatory approvals and privacy compliance, which are major barriers in the Western context.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X Corp., shares the centralized vision for X
The vision of a unified app experience in ‘X’ is appealing, yet achieving this poses considerable challenges. Let’s first explore what makes WeChat successful in China and why replicating this success in the West may be challenging.
WeChat’s success is rooted in its multifunctionality, an approach that has made it an essential tool in daily life in China. Its vast adoption in China stems from its seamless integration into daily life, often pioneering and shaping new digital habits across all types of activities.
From paying utility bills to ordering food, WeChat simplifies these tasks within a single platform, creating a self-contained digital ecosystem unmatched by any Western app. But how did WeChat secured its irreplaceability in Chinese daily life?
One of WeChat’s defining strengths is WeChat Pay, which facilitates everything from person-to-person payments to major transactions, all within the app. With $280 billion in annual transactions, WeChat’s payment feature has accelerated the growth of mini-programs, which have become integral to WeChat’s e-commerce and services ecosystem. Today, WeChat hosts 4.3 million mini-programs, vastly surpassing the app counts on traditional app stores and drawing more than 900 million monthly users.
Musk’s X aims to blend social networking with payments and shopping, aligning with his long-held “everything app” vision dating back to his PayPal days. He envisions a similar integration for X, though achieving this will require overcoming significant regulatory hurdles. Read on to see how Musk step-by-step removes obstacles on his way to achieve that.
Achieving a super-app in the West is politically and technologically difficult. Regulations around privacy, consumer data, and third-party platforms create major hurdles. Furthermore, companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon control digital spaces and are unlikely to cede power to a new platform.
There are several reasons why overseas platforms might never reach the "omni-utility" level of WeChat:
Different Market Needs: The market demands differ from those of WeChat’s Chinese home market. Western users favor specialized apps, while Chinese users embrace the comprehensive ‘super app’ concept.
Privacy Concerns: Western platforms, e.g. Facebook has faced several privacy-related controversies over the years. This has led to trust issues among users, making them hesitant to use it for multiple services, including financial transactions.
Regulations: Regulations in the West make it difficult for a single app to offer a multitude of services.
Competition: WeChat holds a unique position in China’s market with increasing, but still relatively small, competition, while in the West, X faces fierce competition from tech giants offering diverse services.
Elon Musk is steadily advancing his vision of transforming X into an "everything app," with major new developments unfolding in early 2025.
Partnership with Visa: X has taken steps toward realizing this vision by partnering with Visa to offer digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment services. This collaboration will enable users to transfer money between their bank accounts and X wallets and make instant peer-to-peer transactions. CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, announced that the partnership with Visa will launch the X Money Account.
X Money Account: X Money will allow users to securely and instantly fund their X Wallets via Visa Direct, connecting to debit cards for peer-to-peer payments and offering the option to instantly transfer funds to bank accounts.
Licensing: As of early 2025, X Payments LLC has obtained the necessary licenses to operate in 41 states.
Deregulation Efforts: Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) has engaged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to dismantle it, potentially easing regulatory hurdles for X's payment services.
The future of WeChat? While digital technology evolves rapidly, the ‘super-app’ model pioneered by WeChat remains unmatched in its ability to integrate essential services into a single ecosystem, reshaping daily habits and routines in China. Its dominance highlights a digital synergy that has proven challenging to replicate.
For now, X’s aspirations to emulate this model are fraught with hurdles, including regulatory constraints and cultural differences.
However, Musk's political influence in a new administration seems to fast-track the regulatory and financial approvals needed to advance his vision of an “everything app.”
What's your take on the future of X? Do you think it can really play a similar role as WeChat one day?
