“We are always over in Silicon Valley talking to [Facebook and Twitter],” revealed Ann Cairns, president of international markets at MasterCard, during an interview with CNBC at the Money 2020 Fintech conference in Copenhagen.
“We would work … [to] figure out what we can do together, where our network could play into their space and connect up,” explained Cairns about the growing relationship between the respective companies.
“Obvious spaces are if they want to offer payments to their clients and if you think about somebody like Facebook, it would probably be something like a peer-to-peer service,” Cairns added.
Having already partnered with tech giants on mobile payments solutions (including Apple Pay and Google Pay), MasterCard’s push into the social media sphere would build upon the payments systems that firms like Facebook and Twitter have introduced.
The former began a peer-to-peer money transfer service last year via its Messenger platform, allowing U.S. users to send money by linking their MasterCard or Visa debit card. Twitter, on the other hand, has focused on an e-retail model for brands, allowing the company to put a ‘Buy Now’ button into a tweet for purchasable items. Neither firm, however, has an official partnership with MasterCard.
Cairns added that the financial services provided by MasterCard would differ based on the nature of each social network. “It’s really where do the two business models coalesce,” she said.
As a result of the news, Twitter’s stock rose 6.8% to $17.35 on Monday.
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