After it was taken private by Elon Musk, the fundamentals of Twitter deteriorated as advertisers fled amid apprehensions about the direction the social media platform would take under the new owner. It appears that Musk is exploring other monetization avenues for Twitter.
What Happened: Musk is looking to add payments to Twitter and has started applying for licenses across the US, according to the Financial Times. Esther Crawford, one of Musk's trusted lieutenants at Twitter, is reportedly working with a team on the architecture needed to allow payments on the platform. She was appointed chief executive of Twitter Payments by Musk.
The team is working on developing a vault for storing and protecting user data collected by the system, according to the report. It said that Twitter is making progress with the regulatory checks needed to launch a payment service. A regulatory filing was filed with the U.S. Treasury as a payments processor in November.
Why It is Important: Musk previously suggested that he was looking to transform Twitter into an everything app, which would also offer fintech services such as peer-to- peer transactions, savings accounts and debit cards.
Reports indicate that Twitter's bread-and- butter ads revenue may have plunged in the fourth quarter. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, financing the buy with a combination of debt and equity.
The shares of Musk's flagship Tesla Inc. TSLA electric vehicle business have been overhanged by the fear of defaulting on the loan due to shrinking ad revenue.
According to a Bloomberg report, Twitter made the first interest payment on the debt, amounting to $300 million. The report said that the due date for the payment was around January 27.