The plan is to turn Twitter into a SuperApp like WeChat. WeChat is enormous in China because it combines social with payment. It is a proof of who you are and a way to pay. This does not exist currently in the West.
Additional concerns the average citizen would have is the increased reach this would have on them and their life. We are currently dealing with a significant threat to the longevity of social media in gen. pop. We're all netizens here and so are unlikely to stop living part of our life online, but your gen pop folks are less and less interested. Dumb phones are becoming increasingly popular, leaving social media entierly is also increasingly popular. So much so that mainstream popular icons for younger generations like tom holland take a public stand against social media and make a point of leaving it. If that is a move that isn't career suicide for a celebrity then it has to have pretty good mainstream support.
I just dont see how massive broad adoption of a western weechat is going to happen without people being forced to adpot it.
WeChat exists because they have a de facto monopoly granted by the government in exchange for widespread surveillance and censorship.
Clearly, they should have asked for more.
That seems like a strong word.
> This does not exist currently in the West.
To be fair there are perfectly valid reasons why is that the case. There doesn't seem to be much demand (and/or pressure from the government) for an app like this in the west. In any case Twitter is probably the worst positioned social networking site to pivot into this (compared to Facebook for instance).