Skip to main content

Twitter reportedly partnering with Stripe for in-tweet payments

twitter starts testing promoted videos in ad expansion ipo 610x354
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Twitter is reportedly close to inking a deal with online payments startup Stripe to allow its army of users to make purchases directly through the microblogging site.

An unnamed individual “familiar with the matter” told news site Re/code that the deal is close to completion and would give brands and retailers an opportunity to sell their goods directly through the social media site, with Twitter users able to make purchases by credit card using Stripe’s integrated payment tools.

A deal with San Francisco-based Stripe would be a big step forward for the short-messaging service, with the expectation that if companies know they can follow up a Twitter-based marketing campaign with potential sales right off the bat, then they’ll be far more likely to cough up ad dollars for the social media site.

And Twitter should, of course, get a cut of any sales made through its service.

If the company goes ahead with the e-commerce initiative, it’d mark the first major deal in this area since hiring former Ticketmaster boss Nathan Hubbard as its new head of commerce last summer.

While a number of third-party outfits have been offering tweet-to-pay options for some time now, Twitter has apparently chosen to proceed more cautiously with such a service.

Indeed, Re/code points out how, up to now, the social media company “has never fully embraced the commerce side of its business”, ditching several related projects over the years . However, now that it has shareholders to answer to following its IPO in November, Twitter is more than ever looking at ways to move into the black.

Last year it appeared to show more interest in the idea of tweet-to-pay functionality when it partnered with American Express to allow users to make purchases among a limited number of items by tweeting a special hashtag.

Twitter and Stripe have until now made no comment on the news of a possible tie-up, but if anything is announced we’ll keep you posted.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Twitter Circle will soon let you send semiprivate tweets
A Twitter icon on a blue background on a smartphone's screen, all on a white background.

Robert de Niro introduced Ben Stiller and all of us to a concept called the Circle of Trust in the 2000 film Meet the Parents. Now, over 20 years later, Twitter is taking that lesson to heart and spinning it into a new feature it's testing called Twitter Circle.

The Twitter Safety team on Tuesday introduced the feature, which is designed to allow users to share their tweets with up to 150 people instead of sharing them with a public audience. Some people are able to use Twitter Circle already, but it's currently unknown when it will be rolled out to everybody. The testing phase is not exclusive to either iOS or Android, nor is it exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers.

Read more
Yes, soon you really will be able to edit your tweets
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G showing a tweet.

Twitter has officially confirmed that it is finally adding the one feature users have requested for years: The edit button. The social media giant's communications team said in a tweet Tuesday evening that it has been working on the elusive feature for the past year, relieving concerns that it was an April Fool's joke after it was announced for the first time on Friday.

Instead of rolling out the edit button to everyone as it has done with some other features, the company said that plans to test it for Twitter Blue subscribers "in the coming months." To further confirm the reality of the feature, it pointed out that it didn't get the idea from the poll created by Elon Musk, who was just appointed to Twitter's board of directors.

Read more
Twitter removes tabbed timeline after complaints from users
A Twitter logo graphic.

Twitter has rolled back the update that gave users the option to switch between the algorithmically-generated Home tab and the Latest tab that allows them to see tweets in chronological order.

When Twitter rolled out the update on iOS on Thursday, with Android and web versions to set to get it "soon," users complained that they would be forced into the Home tab by default every time they open the app, which made seeing tweets in chronological order extremely difficult. On Monday, Twitter switched the timeline back after significant pushback.

Read more