X (yes, Twitter) is about to launch a peer-to-peer payment solution in our highly financialized world. Yes, everyone wants to insert himself or herself in the payment value chain, and in the process, we are inflating asset prices all over the world. But you cannot blame X because that is the destination for most digital platforms.
Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is reportedly gearing up plans to launch its payment service in 2024.
According to independent app researcher Nima Owji who made this disclosure on X with an image attachment, he revealed that the company is working on adding a “Payments” button to the navigation bar under the bookmarks tab.
Every great digital platform has a stable state of offering a financial solution. I called that fintechnolization: “a construct that every digital platform must have a maturity state of offering a fintech solution. I had watched all great digital platforms on how they ended up providing fintech solutions even when they began in an unrelated sector.” So, X must fintechnolize to capture more value.
In Oct 2007, the Dow (a US market index) closed at its pre-recession high of about 14,000. In March 2009, the index had fallen more than 50% to about 6,500. So, from 2009 to now, the Dow has added about 33,000 points to the current 39,500 points. Considering how many decades it took the Dow to get to 14,000 since 1897 when it was established, and how it used less than 15 years to add 33,000, you could agree that the market system has been financialized.
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Simply, Wall Street can create an unseen value, out of the ambient light of production and market systems. You cannot tell me that everything is fine if it took the Dow more than a century to hit 14000, only to use 15 years to hit 39500.
So, what X is trying to do is the game: if you can insert yourself and pick a cut of say 0.49% on all transactions, it doesn’t really matter if your product is now a political square with no chance of adding any professional or business value. I seldom post there these days. That is the operating principle of this age.
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You game them, they game you. It’s all games.