As Elon Musk again nears a deal to buy Twitter, speculation is resurfacing around how the billionaire plans to transform the social network. Musk's tweet this week offered a clue: "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app."

While Musk didn't elaborate on what X would look like, many reckon he's aspiring to replicate the success of WeChat, which over the past decade has virtually become the everything app in China. People use it to read the news, hail rides, book doctor's appointments, pay taxes, and carry out a myriad of other daily activities.

That perhaps is indeed Musk's idea given he's full of praise for the Tencent-owned messager. In his first town hall with Twitter staff in June, the Tesla founder talked up WeChat as a possible vision for the American social network.

WeChat has long been celebrated in the West as one of the greatest inventions that came out of the Chinese internet. And Tencent's investment in Tesla has probably given Musk an insight into the Chinese internet giant. But is the WeChat model really a desirable product for the U.S.?

The exact WeChat features that impress Musk are also the source of criticisms of the app. The all-in-one messenger has in effect erected a walled garden, critics say, where ecommerce transactions only take place over its payments app and information consumed by users is either published within WeChat's infrastructure or third-party services backed by Tencent. Links from Tencent's nemeses, like Alibaba and Douyin (TikTok's sister in China), were inaccessible on WeChat until Beijing's recent anti-monopoly movement began to tear down the thick walls.