© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The new logo of Twitter is seen in this illustration taken, July 24, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday received a money-transmitter license from Utah, the 15th U.S. state to grant approval as the company explores offering payment features.
Utah granted the approval on Friday, according to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry, an online database.
It grants the company the ability similar to PayPal (NASDAQ:)’s Venmo, to facilitate money transfers and makes way for the company to allow users to send money to one another.
The push into payments could help X diversify its business beyond digital advertising, which has suffered setbacks since Musk took ownership.
Some major advertisers paused their spending or fled the platform after Musk last year agreed with an X user who espoused an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Speaking at a New York Times DealBook event later that month, the billionaire CEO made a profane comment about brands that had suspended their ads on X.
Since acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Musk has said he envisions remodeling the company into the purveyor of an “everything app” similar to popular Chinese app WeChat, which lets users send messages but also hail a taxi or pay merchants.
The company received its first state money-transmitter license in New Hampshire in June last year and also got approved by Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Maryland and Michigan.