As Elon Musk's X expands its efforts to become an 'everything app,' Twitter announced today it will run a livestream shopping event with media icon Paris Hilton. X users can be streamed live videos, chat with others and shop at the same time, as well as hang out in Spaces.
The announcement did not say when the livestream event would kick off, or other details about what to expect, including what products will be sold.
It's not the company's first attempt to make shopping a key feature on its platform.
Before its rebrand, Twitter had been exploring e-commerce initiatives, such as the 2022 launch of mobile storefronts for merchants, then known as Twitter Shops, and features that allowed merchants to tease their upcoming product drops and send reminders to customers.
After Musk took over X, Musk announced a more substantial move, with its first test of its online shopping platform. After Musk's takeover, livestream shopping and other Twitter projects were on the back burner as the team focused on shaking things up at the company by launching paid verification through what was known as Twitter Blue, as well as making other policy changes, including those that targeted creators, which X now aims to better court through higher payouts.
Musk tested livestreamed gaming on an Alt account earlier this year.
Since the infrastructure's failure only days ago, it's uncertain how well it will hold up for a Paris Hilton livestream, given she has 16.6 million followers on X. With it's far fewer than Elon Musk's 158.6 million, the system won't be under the same stress.
The news of the Hilton deal follows statements Musk made about his plans for X to innovate beyond being just a microblogging site to instead be a place that caters to creators and allows them to monetize their fan bases.
The ad revenue-sharing program has already paid out more than $20 million, according to recent statements from X CEO Linda Yaccarino. The company has also been reinvesting in video, having added support for two-hour videos this past spring. X advertiser Apple used the program to stream an entire episode of its Apple TV+ show. X advertiser Musk also recently boasted the viewership of canned Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show on X, though further analysis revealed Musk inflated the view count.
As for e-commerce, it's not clear whether consumers want to shop on social media, in general, for that matter. On October 1st, Meta shuttered its live shopping option on Instagram, after earlier sunsetting the option on Instagram. But in more recent months, TikTok has been expanding its live shopping activities, including a U.S. launch just last month. With X's new initiatives, it's clear the company still believes there's potential for live shopping.