Elon Musk’s X is set to launch an app “identical” to YouTube’s TV offering for smart televisions as early as next week, according to a report.
Musk’s goal is to get users to watch “long videos on a bigger screen” — part of the billionaire’s larger initiative to make X the “everything app,” according to Fortune, which reported the news citing anonymous sources.
“He is set on competing with YouTube,” the source told Fortune, adding that X’s forthcoming video app will first be available exclusively for Amazon and Samsung smart TVs.
Also part of Musk’s push to bring longer-form content to the site, he recruited popular YouTuber MrBeast to post a video to X and recently inked a deal with disgraced former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who’s set to debut a new show exclusively on X on March 18.
MrBeast — formally known as Jimmy Donaldson — showed off how creators could reap financial benefits on X similarly to YouTube by posting a 20-minute feature to the social media platform.
One week after posting the video to X — where Donaldson test-drives more than $250 million worth of cars — he showed off that he earned an impressive $263,655 after amassing nearly 160 million views and over 5 million engagements, which includes interactions such as “likes” and comments.
YouTube TV launched in 2017 as a paid internet TV service that rivals cable options, boasting a lineup that includes 70-plus major US networks such as Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC and ESPN as well as an on-demand library of movies and TV shows.
The news that X could be launching a similar platform comes after it declared in a blog post last month that it was diverting from its text-based roots and is “now a video-first platform,” noting that users can upload long-form videos to the platform.
People watch videos on X in eight out of 10 user sessions, per the blog post shared in early January.
When The Post sought comment from X, its press email auto-responded with, “Busy now, please check back later,” as it has since Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022, when it was known as Twitter.
After rivaling YouTube with the imminent TV app, Musk will set his sites on also competing with livestreaming platform Twitch, encrypted messaging app Signal and social media forum Reddit, among other digital services, the source told Fortune.
All the while, Musk has given his employees an October 2024 deadline to roll out a payments processing mechanism that will enable people to do away with their bank accounts.
“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life,” Musk told his charges at an all-hands meeting late last year.
“If it involves money, it’ll be on our platform,” Musk said, adding: “I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”
When Musk purchased the platform, he made it known that he wanted X to be a “super-app” similar to China’s WeChat, which combines instant messaging, social media, mobile payments, video conferencing and other features.
To that end, X has overhauled its paid verification system and upped character limits from 280 to 25,000, plus rolled out video and audio calling and implemented payment models for creators to earn money on the platform.
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