According to sources familiar with the situation, the Financial Times reported on Monday that Twitter Inc. is working to implement payments on the social media platform and has begun applying for regulatory licenses.
Following his $44-billion acquisition of Twitter in October, Elon Musk, the company’s new boss, is urging the company to develop new revenue sources as it struggles with a decline in advertising revenue.
According to the report, Esther Crawford, a director of product management at Twitter, is overseeing the development of the payments feature. Additionally, the executive was emerging as a key lieutenant to Musk.
A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately responded to by Twitter.
Musk had previously stated that the acquisition of Twitter would be a component of a master plan to create “the everything app,” a service that would provide peer-to-peer payments, e-commerce shopping, and social networking.
Before Musk took over, Twitter was looking into allowing its users to receive tips—digital payments from their followers—in the early part of 2021.
