Has Elon Musk finally taken a meaningful step towards justifying his still absurdly priced $44 billion acquisition of Twitter? Yes, I’m talking about rebranding the platform as X, ostensibly the foundation for creating a “super app” encompassing not just social media, but banking, too. Last year, Musk reportedly told Twitter staff that he was inspired by China’s WeChat, and wanted to transform Twitter into something similar: messaging, video, microtransactions. In other words: One app to rule them all. 

For your sanity and my own, I’m going to temporarily set aside my annoyance and deep exhaustion at the latest antics of the owner, including commandeering existing account handles from active users, and take the concept of a super app idea seriously. Is such an app possible in the United States? And would it ever make it past Lina Khan’s F.T.C.? 

Superficially, there is a simple consumer appeal to an all-in-one mobile application that offers a wide range of ostensibly unrelated services, bound by common infrastructure. The most prominent example is the aforementioned WeChat, which was launched in 2011 and has grown to 1.3 billion monthly users. For context, China has an estimated population of 1.4 billion people. WeChat users have access, via a single portal, to services as wide-ranging as food delivery, messaging, peer-to-peer payments, ride hailing, healthcare, and so much more. Some of these services are offered natively by WeChat. Others are created by third-parties and offered as “mini-programs” that leverage WeChat’s user data and payments infrastructure. Other regional examples include Gojek in Indonesia, LINE in Japan, and Grab in Singapore. A super app is essentially a one-stop shop for more than just shopping.