Explainer: What is an 'everything app' and why does Elon Musk want to make one?

Oct 5 - Why is Elon Musk suddenly thinking about creating an "Everything app," and what does that even mean? Musk is now willing to proceed with his original plan to buy the social media company for $44 billion and late on Tuesday he tweeted: "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app." The concept of an everything app, often referred to as a "Super app," is massively popular in Asia and tech companies across the world have tried to replicate it. WHAT IS A SUPER APP? A super app, or what Musk refers to as an "Everything app," has been described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services for users such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce shopping. WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF SUPER APPS? Chinese super app WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly users, according to one estimate, and is a ubiquitous part of daily life in China. Grab, a leading super app across Southeast Asia, offers food delivery, ride-hailing, on-demand package delivery and financial services and investing. WHY DOES MUSK WANT TO MAKE A SUPER APP? During a question-and-answer session with Twitter employees in June, Musk noted there is no equivalent to a super app like WeChat outside of Asia.