I called it fintechnolization: “a construct that every digital platform must have a maturity state of offering a fintech solution. I had watched all great digital platforms on how they ended up providing fintech solutions even when they began in an unrelated sector.” Today, we’re reading that Twitter has started that translation by adding a financial service component.

“Twitter has entered into a partnership with eToro, a social trading company, to offer financial services on Twitter, suggesting that Elon Musk is setting off his ambition to make the microblogging app a big financial hub. eToro revealed the move in an interview with CNBC, saying the partnership will allow Twitter users to access stocks, cryptocurrencies and other financial assets.”

“As we’ve grown over the past three years immensely, we’ve seen more and more of our users interact on Twitter [and] educate themselves about the markets,” Yoni Assia, eToro’s CEO, told CNBC.

“There is very high quality content, real-time content on financial analysis of companies and what’s happening around the world. We believe this partnership will enable us to reach those new audiences [and] connect better the brands of Twitter and eToro.”

Twitter has already transmuted into X Corp and has started executing a new playbook which will make the microblogging company to become an operating system of digital mobile economy, enabling payment, booking for events, and broad buying and selling of items.

In business, the greatest innovation happens in the business model phase because the whole constellation of organizing factors of production is encapsulated on how to capture value. Elon Musk understood that depending on adverts for a text-based product is challenging (people have to click to be served and that is a lot of work); so, he is expanding the playbook via subscriptions and now fintechnolizing the core DNAs of Twitter. Twitter 2.0 looks promising.

The financial sector is evolving rapidly:

When U.S. banks release their first-quarter earnings in the coming week, analysts expect to see the steepest deposit decline of the past decade, Bloomberg reports. According to estimates, deposits at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America could be down as much as $521 billion from a year ago — the result of consumers’ waning trust in the banking system, following two high-profile bank failures, and savers’ desire for higher yields amid rising inflation.

Asked about Berkshire Hathaway’s sales of bank stocks, CEO Warren Buffett said more banks are likely to fail — which should worry shareholders but not depositors: “Nobody is going to lose money on a deposit in a U.S. bank.” Buffett also said he is cooling on the banking sector but not on Bank of America, where he remains the largest stakeholder.

Meanwhile, Twitter 2.0 is expanding with the re-launch of its creator subscription program which will provide a means for users to monetize their tweets, and build a business in the app. Substack may not be laughing on this Elon Musk playbook which can go directly at the heart of Substack’s core business of subscription-based blogging.

Apply to offer your followers subscriptions of any material, from longform text to hours long video!

Just tap on “Monetization” in settings.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2023

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Comment 1: Twitter partnering with eToro and I think it’s pretty exciting news! It’s great to see social trading platforms gaining more recognition and popularity in the industry. I’m curious to see how this partnership will develop and what kind of impact it will have on both companies. Have you had any experience using eToro or similar social trading platforms before? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

My Response: eToro will have new 300m users. That is huge. Twitter users will not need to leave Twitter to pay for things since most of those things are discovered in Twitter. Why find a trending stock on Twitter and go to Robinhood to buy it when Twitter can allow you to do the same right there? This is a symbiotic playbook and it is significant!

Twitter has entered into a partnership with eToro, a social trading company, to offer financial services on Twitter, suggesting that Elon Musk is setting off his ambition to make the microblogging app a big financial hub.

eToro revealed the move in an interview with CNBC, saying the partnership will allow Twitter users to access stocks, cryptocurrencies and other financial assets.

Starting Thursday, a new feature will be rolled out on the Twitter app. It will allow users to view market charts on an expanded range of financial instruments and buy and sell stocks and other assets from eToro, the company told CNBC exclusively.

The move comes on the heels of Musk’s push to establish a super app dubbed X Corp. that will put together all his businesses, making it easy for users to do a lot of things within the app. The move mirrors Chinese tech giant Tencent’s super app, which has seen its social media app – Wechat – metamorphosed into a payment giant serving millions of people.

Twitter has set the ball rolling by making it possible to view real-time trading data from TradingView on index funds like the S&P 500 and shares of some companies such as Tesla. CNBC had reported that the financial service can be done using Twitter’s “cashtags” feature — you search for a ticker symbol and insert dollar sign in front of it, after which the app will show you price information from TradingView using an API.

An eToro spokesperson told CNBC that the partnership will see Twitter cashtgs expanded to cover far more instruments and asset classes. eToro uses TradingView as its market data partner. The spokesperson explains that the feature will provide users with the ability to click a button that says “view on eToro,” which takes you through to eToro’s site, and then buy and sell assets on its platform.

“As we’ve grown over the past three years immensely, we’ve seen more and more of our users interact on Twitter [and] educate themselves about the markets,” Yoni Assia, eToro’s CEO, told CNBC.

“There is very high quality content, real-time content on financial analysis of companies and what’s happening around the world. We believe this partnership will enable us to reach those new audiences [and] connect better the brands of Twitter and eToro.”

Musk has been seeking ways to increase Twitter’s revenue since he generously dumped $44 billion on the platform’s acquisition late last year. He admitted that the twitter was overpriced but said in a tweet that buying the company was an “accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

Musk owns the domain “X.com” — a payment company he started and eventually merged with PayPal.

X Corp.’s merger with Twitter was submitted on March 15 following the company’s set up on March 9 in Nevada, per the records filed in the state. But Musk had in last April, set up a trio of holding companies in Delaware with a variation of the name “X Holdings”, as part of his bid to acquire Twitter.

eToro, which was founded in 2007 in Israel, offers online brokerage services that let users buy and sell stocks, cryptocurrency and index funds. Its partnership with Twitter marks a significant move in the company’s push to become everything app.

eToro has more than 32 million registered users across Europe, Asia and the United States, according to Assia. One of the company’s most popular features, which allows people to mimic the trading strategies of other users, is expected to form the driving force of the partnership’s growth.

However, analysts have doubted Musk’s chances to succeed in his quest to develop X Corp. as a super app.

“Musk could create a parent structure, similar to Alphabet, where he has all his companies,” said Mandeep Singh, analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. “I don’t see how he can layer e-commerce or payments in Twitter right when larger peers such as Alphabet and Meta have struggled to become an everything app on the consumer side.”

But Assia told CNBC that “Fintwit,” or financial twitter, has become a popular trend on the app, which many people use to find breaking news and updates on stocks and other assets. He said he worked with the same team at Twitter on the stock market data tool that he had worked with on previous partnerships with the company.

It is not clear what other plans Musk is exploring in order to make Twitter his dream everything app. But he said in a Morgan Stanley conference last month that he wants Twitter to become “the biggest financial institution in the world.”

However, this will force a lot of changes on twitter, including an increase of headcount that Musk drastically reduced from 7,500 to 1,500 in a bid to cut costs.

In business, it is always easier to execute a new, hard and great mission than a marginal one. Men and women easily sign up for things which are GREAT than things which are typical. At different levels, a Call to Mission requires extremely committed people. Even in your business, you must have that capacity to find and recruit people that can help you execute a great mission. You must prepare them. Equip them. And push them to come and get glory.

When Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to “bring the world closer together“, via Facebook, he has put a great vision. The newness and hardness are not necessarily a function of technology, but rather the aspirational quality of the mission at hand. When Google says it wants to organize the world’s information, it has something many people, across generations, would commit to help it execute.

In our age, you can sign up a whole village if you say you are going to the moon. But if you say you want to dig the ground, many will not show up. Going to the moon is new and harder; men and women would be inspired by that possibility. Digging the ground is easier and stale; few people would want that. The best talent would congregate for the moon business while the digging ground one will struggle. Do hard but great things, and the best will like to work for you! NASA, a space pioneering organization, looks better on your resume than that excavation company!

All great entrepreneurs communicate with a higher purpose! Learn from them.

“If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you” – Steve Jobs

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Comment 1: Hi My Prof Ndubuisi, I just read your post on communicating higher purpose and the secrets to doing it effectively. Great insights there! It’s so important to be able to articulate a clear and compelling purpose for your organization, and to communicate that purpose in a way that resonates with your audience.

I especially liked your point about using stories to illustrate your purpose. Stories are such a powerful tool for engaging people and helping them connect with your message on a deeper level.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic. It’s something that I think a lot of us struggle with, so it’s great to have some practical tips to work with. Keep up the great work!