Musk's "X" Makes Its Play For Superapp With Visa Direct Payments
X is making a very smart move in copying WeChat!
“X” is making its play for Superapp with Visa Direct Payments in what is likely to be the first real superapp in the West!
I congratulate X and Visa for a partnership that will likely change the face of money movement by directly connecting Social Media with Payments as done so successfully by WeChat in China.
What makes X’s play for superapp staus so special is that X is open to all users and allows for direct messaging, which copies the defining feature of WeChat of sending money over chat. This is an unstoppable combination and I think X will succeed.
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Visa Direct is also a great new product that acknowledges that normal card channels and fees won’t work in a connected world. Visa Direct is trusted because of its association with Visa and International, but it is not instant. Visa Direct transactions may still take up to 30 minutes, with fees in some markets up to 0.25%, which on larger transactions falls short of free but is better than most.
What X is buying with Visa is greater trust, as people will associate payments with Visa rather than with X. That’s a good thing, given all the scammers on the platform!
We can only assume that Zuckerberg’s Facebook Messenger would have loved to launch the same service but lacked the internal willpower to do so. Will they now copy X?
X will be the first superapp in the West. This is a great move for everyone and a welcomed addition to the payment landscape.
Kudos to X and Visa, to the victor, go the spoils!
👉Why ”X” will be the next superapp
🔹 X allows easy on-boarding and is open to everyone! Compare that to bank apps where you need to have an account.
🔹 Social payments on X means that you can converse and pay simultaneously, this is absolutely the magic formula for WeChat where payments and conversations go together.
🔹Payments are platform independent as the X app works on both iPhone or Android devices. X will break down the walled gardens of Apple and Google Pay.
🔹 X isn’t providing a native payment service but is partnering with well-known and trusted Visa. So, for payments, you aren’t “trusting X” so much as “trusting Visa.” While Visa is unto itself a walled garden, given how many people already have Visa cards, the wall is fairly low.
🔹 X will get payment data putting them in a new position to upsell and cross-sell X member’s payment data. This is a significant source of revenue for WeChat and will likely be huge for X as well.
🔹X will be happy to allow corporate users on the App and it won’t be long before X allows bill payments and other services directly on App.
🔹 Mini-programs? A defining feature of WeChat is its use of mini-programs; while X hasn’t mentioned this yet, you can bet it’s in the pipeline.
🔹 But it’s Visa! I agree. I hope that in the future, X will allow the use of FedNow and other lower fee transfer mechanisms. That said for the international network and trust factor Visa can’t be beat!
🔹 It’s not free, no it’s not, but it’s close. Visa Direct transactions have an Interchange rate of 0.25%. These are capped at €0.04 for the UK and Europe.
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