Elon Musk has long held the idea of molding an ‘everything app’, akin to China’s WeChat. However, discrepancies between the US and Chinese markets may cause his ambitious vision to fall flat.
The rebranding of Twitter and Musk’s vision
Last week, Musk made significant strides in completely overhauling Twitter. Musk replaced Twitter’s bird logo with the character “X” on July 24, hinting at a change towards an “everything app.” He envisions an application that provides all-encompassing communication features and complete financial control.
This tech jargon may seem ambiguous, but it aligns with Musk’s previous aspirations for PayPal and X.com. Last summer, Musk expressed his admiration for China’s everything app, WeChat, giving us a sneak peek into what X could potentially transform into.
The challenges ahead
Although Musk’s aspirations are high, realizing them might be more complex. WeChat, which had humble beginnings as a simple messaging app, evolved into an everything app. However, the path to becoming the ultimate app isn’t paved for X as it was for WeChat.
WeChat now boasts over 1.3 billion active users, a stark contrast to Twitter’s 368 million in December 2022. The crux of the issue is that Musk cannot merely replicate WeChat’s success by adding features to X.
WeChat is a holistic social ecosystem that has been deeply ingrained in users’ lives from the very beginning. This level of integration might be beyond the reach of Twitter, or its new incarnation as X.
X’s late entry and stiff competition
Being late to the game, X faces fierce competition. When WeChat was launched, China’s digital landscape was still burgeoning and lacked a dominant player, making the conditions ripe for WeChat’s growth. Musk, on the other hand, is entering a saturated tech market, where he needs to compete with established tech giants like PayPal, Venmo, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and others.
The fundamental differences
Despite the challenges mentioned above, it’s important to remember that Twitter, or its potential successor X, is inherently different from WeChat, and they cater to vastly different audiences. WeChat’s success is primarily due to China’s tech censorship policy, which eliminated competition from popular platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
In this light, it might be wise for Musk to acknowledge the stark differences between the US and China and the fact that WeChat’s success cannot easily be replicated with X in the US context.
Insider reached out to representatives for X for comments but received no response as of publishing time.
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