Video transcript
O PIX É DO BRASIL | Não dá tempo de explicar
54 statements · 1 politicians · September 1, 2025 · 5 min
Statements by Guilherme Boulos. 54 transcribed statements, with topic and stance on the ones the analysis classified.
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54 statementsFull transcript of the video. Statements the analysis classified carry topic and stance.
Why is Trump so bothered by PIX?
Many people didn't understand when he included PIX in that sanctions package, saying that Brazilian payment methods engaging in unfair trade were harming U.S. interests.
Many people thought it was Trump's bluster, those crazy things the far right says.
But it wasn't.
No, folks.
Behind this there are... huge economic interests.
See, digital payment methods are a tool that is changing the face of finance around the world and have opened up a new market niche.
The Brazilian market is no small thing; it's one of the largest markets in the world.
So, U.S. big techs were eyeing that slice of the Brazilian market for digital payment and transfer services.
The one that lost its mind and ripped its hair out was a U.S. big tech company.
Meta was finishing developing a system called WhatsApp.
A payment method through WhatsApp.
And when PIX was launched, PIX was going to take that market position.
Days later, in a hurry, they launched WhatsApp Pay in Brazil.
It was the first country in the world where they launched it.
Without legal approval, without anything.
Of course, it was suspended a week later by the Central Bank.
Because they know that whoever arrives first in the market manages to capture the general base of customers and data.
You might then ask, well, WhatsApp lost a lucrative market niche — does that matter?
This is Meta — that's why Trump is irritated.
But exactly what is that market niche?
If it's a free service, what do they gain?
That's the big question, folks.
What they gain is our data.
With every Pix we make, or if we did it through WhatsApp Pay, you're leaving behind your spending patterns — where you spend, on what you spend, how much you spend.
And those data today in the digital market, in the cloud, are worth gold.
All the more so for the United States, which is in a technological war.
Between the U.S. big techs and the Chinese big techs.
And China, in this case, made use of a resource that the U.S. big techs did not have: combining several different services into a single app.
From payments, like Pix, to transport services, shopping services, whatever — all in one.
And with that they can get a more panoramic pattern of each person's data.
So... It was strategic for Meta and for the United States' cold war with China over digital payment technology to take the Brazilian market.
But then Pix came along.
And they were outraged.
So much so that Trump positioned himself as a spokesperson for Meta's interests.
But not only Meta's interests, because a payment method like Pix also reduces the profits of the major U.S. credit card networks.
We're talking about Mastercard, Visa.
Only 40% of low-income Brazilians use credit cards.
Those transactions are now mostly made through Pix.
In other words, a lucrative slice of the market for our digital payment data was lost by them to the Brazilian Central Bank, to Brazil.
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