Britons don’t want Elon Musk’s “everything app”

The first year of Elon Musk’s tenure as owner of Twitter has seen mass layoffs; management changes; the launch of a new subscription service; the reinstatement of Donald Trump, Kanye West, and other banned accounts; and the introduction of a 1,000-post-per-day browsing limit. Possibly the most consequential change is the platform’s rebrand to “X”: the first step in a plan to turn it into a WeChat-style super-app offering payments, “comprehensive communications”, and more.

Throw Elon Musk into the mix and Britons become even less enthusiastic about the idea: just 17% say they would be interested, while 72% say they would not. The Twitter and Tesla exec may be a liability in a more general sense: by 46% to 10%, the public say they would be less likely to use a company’s products and services if they knew he was involved with it.

Musk might be consoled somewhat by the fact that attitudes towards “everything apps” are more positive among younger users. While just 27% of the general public are interested in the idea of a UK WeChat, this rises to 38% of Britons aged 18-34.

How successful do Britons think an everything app might be? 

If Britons aren’t personally into the idea of using an everything app, they don’t necessarily think the idea is doomed to failure. In fact, two in five (40%) think it would be successful – while just over one in five (23%) think it would fail.

But again, if you mention Musk, people are more sceptical: while 35% believe an Elon-created super-app would succeed in the UK, 36% believe it would not.

YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 31 July – 1 August 2023, with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults in Great Britain (aged 18+ years), using a questionnaire designed by YouGov. Data figures have been weighted by age, gender, education, and social grade to be representative of all adults in Great Britain (18 years or older), and reflect the latest ONS population estimates. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.