Musk to take on Paypal with Twitter online payments

ELON MUSK is going head-to-head with his old company Paypal as Twitter gears up to become an online payments business.

The social media company has been applying for payments processing licences across the US as well as hiring people to start building a payments system.

Twitter’s director of product management, Esther Crawford, is in charge of the operation to turn the social media website into a Paypal rival, the Financial Times reported.

In November, Twitter registered with the US Treasury as a payments processor, according to regulatory filings.

Mr Musk cut his business teeth as chief executive of a dotcom bubble-era company acquired by Paypal, the online payments giant.

Plans were in place for Twitter to set up an online payments division last year, pre-dating Mr Musk’s buyout of the company for $44bn (£36bn) last

October. Paypal’s acquisition by ebay for $1.5bn in 2002 set Mr Musk on the path to becoming owner of one of the world’s most influential social media websites, as well as helming a rocket launch company and a global electric car manufacturer.

After acquiring Twitter, Mr Musk said he would turn it into an “everything app” called X, echoing the name of the company bought by Paypal in 2001.

Many tens of thousands of Twitter users share links every day to payments processing websites such as Paypal, Cashapp and Venmo. Integrating payments into Twitter could be a route to opening up new revenue streams.

Twitter is heavily dependent on advertising revenue for its survival, a dependence that has taken a major hit after Mr Musk acquired it.

A series of erratic decisions, including letting banned users including ex-us president Donald Trump back onto the site, combined with around 5,000 staff departures, spooked advertisers. Major spenders including Volkswagen, US foodstuffs conglomerate General Mills and pharma business Pfizer all suspended ad campaigns with Twitter last year. Some reports claimed that Twitter has lost half of its top 100 advertisers over the last three months.

Industry sources cited concerns over brand safety as content moderators were made redundant.