Jan 28 (Reuters) - Payments giant Visa and Elon

Musk's X are partnering to offer direct payment solutions to

customers of the social media app, a person familiar with the

matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The deal comes as the billionaire continues his efforts to

transform the X platform into an "everything app", aiming to

offer a wide range of services, including messaging, social

networking and payments.

Visa will be the first partner of the X Money account, under

which customers can instantly fund their X wallet and connect

their debit cards for peer-to-peer payments, the source said.

Customers will also get the option to instantly transfer funds

to their bank account from X Money.

The digital payments ecosystem in the U.S. has grown rapidly

since 2020, driven by the pandemic, which pushed people online

and increased the demand for convenient peer-to-peer payments,

typically via smartphones.

Traditional card networks Visa and rival Mastercard ( MA )

have ramped up investments in the digital payments space and are

now competing with tech firms such as PayPal ( PYPL ), Block's

Cash App, Apple Pay, and Google Pay for a slice of the

lucrative market.

Musk, who in April 2022 clinched a $44 billion deal to buy

Twitter and later rebranded it as X, has signaled plans to model

it as a "super app", similar to China's WeChat.

The concept, often described as the Swiss army knife of

mobile apps, is popular in Asia, and tech companies across the

world have tried to replicate it.

"2025 X will connect you in ways never thought possible. X

TV, X Money, Grok and more," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in a

post last month.