An article in PaymentsSource indicates Twitter will acquire CardSpring to enable and track promotion.
“Twitter has agreed to buy CardSpring, a payments infrastructure company, to fuel the transformation of its service into a platform for online commerce,” according to the article.
“CardSpring’s services allow merchants to offer and track promotions across channels. Its technology is part of First Data’s Offerwise, which is used by clients such as the social media company Foursquare.”
The article further suggests that Twitter’s payment plans came to light accidentally five months ago.
“Twitter’s commerce plans leaked in February when images of a mock-up demonstrated plans to enable purchasing through the online marketplace Fancy.com. At the time, Twitter was reportedly working with the payment processor Stripe. This month, Fancy’s app added “Buy Now” buttons that directed to a checkout page within Twitter’s app in what might have been an accidental reveal of the technology,” the Payment Source article said.
Mobile apps that enable shopping should of course also provide a payment option to complete the shopping experience which is best enabled today using a card-on-file solution. Twitter isn’t a eCommerce player today and while it may make sense to utilize partners like Stripe to establish a base of cardholders, it is unclear how many Twitter partners will be interested in relying on Twitter rather than establishing their own consumer base with cards-on-file.
Overview by Tim Sloane, Vice President, Payments Innovation
To read the full story, go to PaymentsSource.