Elon Musk's vision of an everything app that includes banking capabilities may not be what Americans are looking for, said Max Levchin, who co-founded PayPal with the world's richest man.
"I do think that the everything app worked really well in a place, in a time, in a different country," Levchin, now chief executive officer of financial-technology firm Affirm, said Friday on Bloomberg Television. "I don't think the U.S. consumer is looking for a version of a Tencent product."
Musk wants Twitter, which he bought in 2022, to be more like Tencent's WeChat, a messaging service that also allows users to send each other funds, pay for goods and services and borrow money. The app is used daily by more than a billion people in China, but attempts by tech firms including PayPal, Facebook and Google to offer something similar in the U.S. haven't been successful.
While Musk is facing an uphill battle, Levchin said he isn't betting against his one-time colleague.
"Don't ever put anything past Elon," he said. "He has proven time and time again that he can achieve crazy things."
—With assistance from Sonali Basak.
