X adds audio and video calling feature, bringing Musk closer to "American version of WeChat"

X (formerly Twitter) - a product that used to be similar to Weibo, with the main function of publishing 140-character messages. Under the manipulation of the richest man, it is evolving towards a more complex direction.

Just yesterday, X CTO Musk announced: video and voice call functions are coming soon, supporting iOS, Android, Mac/PC platforms, and no need for a SIM card.

Combining the live streaming and financial services functions that were added recently, Chinese netizens who have been watching Musk's actions couldn't help but exclaim: Isn't this just WeChat?

Musk's product vision: Creating a WeChat in the United States

That's right. Musk's love for WeChat has almost reached the point of confronting WeChat's creator, Allen Zhang.

Even before acquiring X, Musk had praised WeChat multiple times in interviews:

"The United States doesn't have an excellent app like WeChat in China."

Ashlee Vance, the author of Musk's biography, also mentioned that Musk envisions X as a combination of Twitter, WeChat, and TikTok, a so-called "Everything App" that comprehensively meets users' needs on one platform, providing online shopping, chatting, news reading, and ride-hailing services.

Although X's position in the United States is still far from WeChat's dominant influence in China, Musk is steadily advancing by replicating its features one by one.

The first step is financial services. Linda Yaccarino, the newly appointed CEO in May, explicitly stated that X will include payment and banking functions, inheriting the legacy of X.com (later PayPal), the online bank co-founded by Musk in 1999.

The next step is to add features such as live streaming, video calls, and voice calls, gradually transforming X into a super app.

Of course, considering the background of the new CEO Linda Yaccarino (formerly the head of NBC Universal Advertising) and the current profit model, X's transformation cannot be achieved overnight. For a long time in the future, it will still rely mainly on advertising revenue and assume the responsibility of marketing for Musk's industries, compensating for the lack of traffic and platform shortcomings.

So when will X become the all-in-one app that Musk expects? It's hard to say at the moment.

Three Obstacles to Creating an All-In-One App

In 2010, before WeChat was born, Mike Lazaridis, the founder of BlackBerry, foresaw the concept of a "super app" (which is essentially Musk's vision of an all-in-one app):

"Super apps are tightly integrated with other applications, providing users with a seamless experience on their devices. Moreover, the user experience of super apps is highly contextualized, as they can promptly access relevant information such as the user's location and status. Once users start using super apps, they become dependent on them and may even wonder how they lived without them in the past."

However, in 2023, while WeChat has become a behemoth with 1.3 billion monthly active users and a wide range of functionalities from hotel bookings to hospital appointments, there is still no super app in Europe or the United States that can rival it.

There are three main reasons for this, which also pose three major challenges to Musk's "WeChat blueprint":

First, at the cultural level. The internet industry in Europe and the United States developed earlier, and during the rapid growth of mobile internet in the 2010s, the Western world already had a well-established ecosystem of companies and services, offering users a wide range of products to choose from.

Furthermore, super apps are specifically designed for mobile experiences, while PC penetration is very high in Europe and the United States. The path dependence on desktop platforms has resulted in a slower transition to mobile, and there is not a high demand for super apps. Many users in Europe and the United States are accustomed to switching between multiple applications, so the advantages of super apps in terms of user experience are not significant. Therefore, European and American societies lack the cultural foundation to accommodate super apps.

Second, at the user mindset level. From voice chats to red packet transfers, WeChat's foundation lies in its strong social ecosystem inherited from Tencent QQ. On the other hand, X is a public social platform centered around Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), and users primarily use X to consume content produced by influential figures, with few using it to connect with family and friends. It is difficult for X to reverse this user mindset.

In Europe and the United States, mature instant messaging applications are divided, with users scattered across Facebook (Messenger) and WhatsApp, which dominate social interactions with acquaintances. Coincidentally, both of these platforms are arch-rivals of Musk's nemesis, Mark Zuckerberg, and there is no room for X to thrive.

Third, at the regulatory level. As early as 2019, Meta (formerly Facebook) planned to launch the cryptocurrency project Diem and add financial services to its app family. However, under the pressure of antitrust regulations, the project was forced to shut down. Earlier this year, X also faced a class-action lawsuit for unauthorized collection, storage, and use of biometric data without user consent.

It is foreseeable that in today's climate where large internet companies are increasingly under scrutiny, if Musk continues to push X towards becoming a super app, regulatory authorities in the United States will not turn a blind eye.

However, Mr. Musk has always been one to embrace challenges. The more difficult and resistant the situation, the more determined he becomes. Whether he can spread the spirit of Zhang Xiaolong, the creator of WeChat, to Europe and the United States remains to be seen, and it depends on the Silicon Valley Iron Man.