Twitter Moves One Step Closer To Commerce

As more and more hints have made it clear that Twitter is toying with a direct payment mechanism, the idea that Twitter will be doing payment is no surprise. But a report out now suggests that the answer to the “how” part of Twitter payments will come from a partnership with Stripe.

“Later this year, Twitter is expected to unveil buttons within tweets that say ‘Buy’ or some variation of the word. After clicking on the button, shoppers are expected to be able to enter in payment and possibly shipping information without leaving Twitter’s service,” reports Re/code. “Businesses that want to sell products or services within tweets are being instructed to sign up with Stripe to process payments on their behalf. (Although) Stripe is believed to be Twitter’s only payments partner now working on the E-commerce business, it’s not clear whether that will remain the case over the long haul.”

The story pointed out that Stripe is also working with Alipay to make Alipay available to businesses in the West. “Twitter has considered integrating shopping functionality into its service for several years now, but the initiative became serious when the company hired former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard to run it last summer,” the story said.