Billionaire Elon Musk’s social network X is going to launch a TV app. It wants to focus on video and entertainment, and compete with platforms such as YouTube from Google parent company Alphabet. X didn’t give a date yet, but said it will be “available on most smart TVs soon.”
X also touted the ability to play videos from smartphones on larger screens via the app. Similar initiatives have already been launched in recent months by tech companies Google and Amazon.
There have been rumors about the arrival of the new service for some time. X now confirms this in a memo to potential customers and partners, but does not yet say when exactly the platform should be released. It is clear that the service would “soon be available for most smart TVs”.
Earlier this year, X announced several notable collaborations to bring more professionally produced videos to the platform. One of those deals, with former CNN news anchor Don Lemon for an exclusive show, fell apart after Lemon interviewed Musk.
Musk has never made it a secret that he eventually wants to turn X into an ‘everything app’, bringing together numerous services. Users should be able to follow the news, chat, watch videos, buy products and bank on the app.
The move to videos is also important for X due to the departure of many advertisers from the messaging service. This makes it necessary to find new income streams. Many videos are now being viewed on X itself. According to the company, in the past thirty days, all those videos viewed added up to approximately 23 billion video minutes. “We want to monetize it, and will discuss different types of collaborations. Possibly also advertisements,” X said in a separate message to potential customers and partners.
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Tags: Elon Musk compete YouTube Multimedia
