As it became known the previous day, Ilon Mask is once again ready to buy Twitter at a previously announced price of $44 billion, and he has ambitious plans on the platform, based on which he intends to create a super application based on the Chinese WeChat model.
Once the deal is closed, the richest person in the world will be the owner of one of the most powerful media platforms, and there will be an end to proceedings that have damaged both Twitter and Maska's reputation. In April, the businessman proposed to the company to absorb it, but subsequently withdrew it because of uncertainty about spam bots. On the eve of the day, however, he reported that the acquisition of the platform would speed up his intention to create a "one-size-fits-all" coded "X".
In addition to a short tweet, no statement has yet been made by Mask, but there is a possibility that it is a large project comparable to the Chinese super application WeChat. Tesla's head has previously expressed his admiration for how Tencent turned the messenger into a kind of "small Internet" that more than a billion Chinese people use every day. The mask shared its thoughts out loud that Twitter would be more useful if it became more like WeChat and TikTok – and recalled the popular super-applications in Asia that offer different tasks in one place, from communication to taxi call.
The Bloomberg Agency has suggested that in implementing its design, Mask may depart from the five key messages that distinguish WeChat.
- It's more than a social network. Hundreds of millions of people use WeChat every day to order taxis and food, as well as to book tables at a restaurant. It's all done with a mini application platform inside WeChat that connects to a single interface. WeChat is a Fintech giant, one of China's largest paying and financial systems. People pay for goods and services, send money to each other and borrow. It's one of the most popular news and entertainment portals in the country. It's a powerful business platform: the mini-application economy WeChat reached $240 billion in 2021.WeChat is a universal service combining Facebook*, Twitter, Uber, Instagram and Substack.
WeChat is also a feature of Chinese services, which traditionally liberal Mask is hardly willing to welcome in the public field. It's about censorship. Artificial intelligence algorithms and an army of moderators regularly rid the platform of content that official Beijing considers unacceptable, ranging from publications of indecent content to criticism of power.
* Listed on the list of voluntary associations and religious organizations in respect of which the court has taken a legally enforceable decision to abolish or prohibit activities on the grounds provided for in Federal Act No. 114-FZ of 25 July 2002 on countering extremist activities.