Twitter Teases Zynga, Vatican Payments, GOP Moves

Here are our top five tweets from the week that was. Keep tweeting, and we may feature you next Friday.


@FirstData: Interesting predictions by @karenmpd for #payments industry in 2013. Via @PYMNTS j.mp/S58khx What trends do you think we’ll see?

Our 2013 predictions piece was by far our most popular article of the week, with many from all around the payments industry tweeting us their thoughts. We rounded up eight bold predictions from around the web, then had our Karen Webster respond and react. The result is an interesting take on what lies ahead for payments in 2013, and if you missed it, it’s a must read.

Read the original tweet here.


@Square: There are now 7k new places to get a Card Reader – Starbucks near you! One Love Tea takes Pymnts on-the-go w/Square: youtube.com/watch?v=FAaj5w…

Square and Starbucks continue to cement what looks to be a very mutually beneficial relationship. The coffee giant backed Square with a $25 million funding round in August, and began accepting Square Wallet payments in November. Now it’s helping to spread Square commerce beyond its stores by selling the mobile payments platforms along with its lattes and cake pops. If any of you are fans of irony, buy a card reader from Starbucks using Square Wallet and then Tweet me a picture of the receipt. I promise you’ll make the list next week.

Read the original tweet here.


@JoshDorner: It’s still hilarious to think that by blocking her *CFPB nomination, GOP senators instead installed Elizabeth Warren on the Banking Cmte.

Two groups who probably don’t find this funny: GOP senators and banking officials. But considering it seems to be “rail on the GOP week,” (even it’s own members are joining the fun), we’ll include this tweet as reflective of the times. We ran a piece this week detailing how new congressmen could come to affect banking regulations, and Warren is certainly near the top of the list.

Read the original tweet here.


@thejoelstein: What other useless crap can we sell to Al Jazeera? Can we interest them in shares of Zynga?

Ooh ooh, a pop culture joke! Joel Stein brings us this zinger as Zynga decided to fold 11 more of its Facebook titles on Wednesday. For those of you on Facebook who’ve been harassed by “PetVille” and “MafiaWars” requests, perhaps this won’t come as bad news. But for the struggling social gaming site, it’s just another in a long line of mishaps.

Read the original tweet here


@JoakimGomez: They’re back to passing the basket?! “@ChannelNewsAsia: Bank card payments suspended in Vatican: reports cna.asia/Ugac7K”

As you can likely imagine, Twitter was pretty liberal with the wisecracks about this story that the Bank of Italy shut down payments in the Vatican amid money laundering concerns. One of our other favorite headlines? “Vatican payments shut down by higher power.” Never Twitter, irony. Never change.

Read the original tweet here.


Have a good weekend, and happy tweeting!