There isn't a chance that I'll ever use something like WeChat. I keep all of those components on separate companies because I don't ever want to be tied into something that has that kind of power over my life. Having choice is far better than integration.
I've switched banks 3 times over four decades, ISP more times than that, comms channels a couple of times as well (most recently due to Musk's acquisition of Twitter) and will probably do so again at least once. Tying it all together with an 'everything app' seems like a stupendously stupid move to me (from the consumers perspective). Especially with an unhinged guy like Musk at the helm.
Indeed, just hearing the stories here on HN about how people are suddenly locked out of just their gmail or other accounts without explanation or recourse is pretty good reason to not but all your eggs in one dystopian corporate basket.
I don't know how he can be this stupid to try such a thing. Many companies tried to replicate WeChat in the west, and they all failed because nobody wants to have some gigantic clusterfuck of an app on their phone. It works in China only because of China's political system, as in people literally have no choice.
This is what he's been envisioning since back in the PayPal days.
The problem for Musk is that the US, EU, UK, AU etc are not remotely interested in a mainstream commerce platform that takes a lax approach to KYC/AML.
And despite Musk's delusions the "blue tick" program is not a suitable verification foundation to build payments on top of.
There is a reason why Facebook/Whatsapp/Instagram is not in one app called Meta.
It does not work too well with western audiences - cluttered and too busy mobile apps do not succeed.
I half think some of the issue with the everything app idea is that the west already has everything apps, they're called "Android" and "iOS". It's the slightly weird regulatory / political situation in China that's led to WeChat becoming a thing.
And that tracks perfectly with what he's doing, because he's betting on the fascists winning the next election cycle, so they can bail him out by making X-Twitter the official "free speech" platform of the new dictatorship.
If Whatsapp failed to become WeChat organically, even though it's installed in most phones around the world and in some places you can already make payments through it, do you really think Twitter can pull it off by brute force?
I've switched banks 3 times over four decades, ISP more times than that, comms channels a couple of times as well (most recently due to Musk's acquisition of Twitter) and will probably do so again at least once. Tying it all together with an 'everything app' seems like a stupendously stupid move to me (from the consumers perspective). Especially with an unhinged guy like Musk at the helm.