Elon Musk's Twitter Files For Licenses To Add In-App Payment Services Amid Pressure To Meet Debt Obligations: Report

Twitter’s fundamentals deteriorated after it was taken private by Elon Musk as advertisers fled amid apprehensions about the direction the social media platform would take under the new owner. It now appears that Musk is exploring other monetization avenues for Twitter.

What Happened: Musk is looking to add payments to Twitter and has begun applying for licenses across the U.S., reported the Financial Times. Esther Crawford, one of Musk's trusted lieutenants at Twitter, is reportedly working with a small team on the architecture needed to allow payments on the platform. She has been appointed as chief executive of Twitter Payments by Musk, it added.

See Also: Best Technology Stocks Right Now

The team is working on devising a vault for storing and protecting user data collected by the system, the report said. Twitter is also making progress with the regulatory checks needed for launching a payment service, it added. The company registered with the U.S. Treasury as a payments processor in November, FT said, citing a regulatory filing.

Why It’s 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 suggest that Twitter’s bread-and-butter ad revenue may have plunged in the fourth quarter. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, financing the buy with a combination of debt and equity.  

Fears of defaulting on the loan amid shrinking ad revenue have remained an overhang on the shares of Musk’s flagship Tesla Inc. TSLA electric vehicle business. 

A Bloomberg report said Twitter made the first interest payment on the debt, amounting to $300 million. The due date for the payment was around Jan. 27, the report said.

Read Next: Elon Musk Dubs Twitter 'PvP Of Social Media'