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Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

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Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#101

Post by mahmoudimus »

johnrob wrote: post #79

Any app/website with a large user base should probably add this feature. The main value here, compared to simply dropping an ecommerce link in a tweet (the current use case), is piggy backing payment and fulfillment on top of the existing twitter user account.

Would be interesting to see how these things develop -- fulfillment and payment processing are double-edged swords.

Bolting on fulfillment to a twitter-purchase seems like a lot of work, but as another commentator said, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#102

Post by pinaceae »

pionar wrote: post #36
pinaceae wrote: post #16

it is a big conundrum if your core product, through its simplicity, is really great. you hire all these product people, have all these investors, but any direction you can take the product actually makes it worse against its initial, great core use. twitter as a protocol is on a level with smtp - a lucky strike, hitting a need, something for the ages. journalists, media, etc. love it. RSS on a whole new level. but tw…

Twitter isn't a protocol. If it was, there'd be Twitter (the protocol) based services everywhere, and it'd be open and federated. Twitter is a service. Services need money. It's a simple as that.

it started as such. lots of 3rd party clients, cool new use cases and UIs. all squashed by now. API caps, etc.

they need money, sure. but not just to operate and make a nice profit, they need to grow, they need blowout quarter after blowout quarter. impossible with this simple and clean core product. hence doom on the horizon. just look at all the bad feedback they're getting for their feed changes. core audience hates it. won't bring new users. stuck.

twitter could/should be run like craisglist or reddit. hardcore maintainence mode. neat little business. but no VC will ever allow it.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#103

Post by pavel_lishin »

kordless wrote: post #44

There are exactly zero times I wished I could buy something from a Tweet with a button. Given that limited observation of buyer behavior, and knowing full well Twitter wishes to make profit, I'm assuming these buttons will be forced into my public stream somewhere, somehow. Some people on here think these buttons will be placed there by Twitter via ads, but I have another idea: Provide a micropayment channel program…

> There are exactly zero times I wished I could buy something from a Tweet with a button.

But there are a huge number of times when a corporation has wished it could make it super easy for you to make a snap purchasing decision.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#104

Post by jfb »

softbuilder wrote: post #75
stdbrouw wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a little bit too hand-wavy to me. You mention only a single opportunity Twitter missed by not focusing on being a "true platform", and then you immediately hedge by saying that you're not sure people will actually use it.

Sandy comes to mind, and is actually a better example. (Although Google seems to have forgotten it existed.) For clarity, I see Twitter as having this amazing potential as a message bus for both people, apps, and services. And I feel that potential has been squandered. I'm unsure if this particular idea is going to pay off. But the general notion of an ecosystem of services hanging off of Twitter seems like the right…

How do you make money as a message bus? I'm not saying I disagree (I take no position on the merits of Twitter-as-a-servce, as I am not a user), but clearly the Best Minds have decided that the attention economy (read: ads) is the way forward. How do you pay for that critical mass? Twitter isn't something that falls out of infrastructure -- decisions had and have to be taken to spend resources.

While selling people to advertisers is getting harder, and therefore less margin-friendly, it'd take a braver company than Twitter to turn their back on the model. IMO.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#105

Post by at-fates-hands »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #103
kordless wrote: post #44

There are exactly zero times I wished I could buy something from a Tweet with a button. Given that limited observation of buyer behavior, and knowing full well Twitter wishes to make profit, I'm assuming these buttons will be forced into my public stream somewhere, somehow. Some people on here think these buttons will be placed there by Twitter via ads, but I have another idea: Provide a micropayment channel program…

> There are exactly zero times I wished I could buy something from a Tweet with a button. But there are a huge number of times when a corporation has wished it could make it super easy for you to make a snap purchasing decision.

You are correct sir.

This is the equivalent of a an "impulse" rack of merch at the checkout line at the grocery store or a gas station.

All they need are enough people (less than 5% I'd assume) to use it to become commonplace in your feeds. I knew it eventually come to this.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#106

Post by x0x0 »

kordless wrote: post #44

There are exactly zero times I wished I could buy something from a Tweet with a button. Given that limited observation of buyer behavior, and knowing full well Twitter wishes to make profit, I'm assuming these buttons will be forced into my public stream somewhere, somehow. Some people on here think these buttons will be placed there by Twitter via ads, but I have another idea: Provide a micropayment channel program…

When I saw a band in the list of test clients, it sort of made sense. I wouldn't buy clothes, but spend $1 to get this soundboard boot of a song from concert X? I'd probably click that.

And now that I think of it, also books and concert tickets. One thing that frustrates me endlessly about fiction authors is they don't curate mailing lists. For whatever reason -- and they must have tested it -- amazon does not do a good job of informing you of new releases from authors you've purchased. I have a handful of authors I like enough that I buy everything they write. The smarter ones curate email lists to help me do that, but I think twitter often serves that purpose for authors and bands. So if they could sell me concert tickets or their new releases inline I may well buy.

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#107

Post by x0x0 »

kordless wrote: post #100
fudged71 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, an affiliate marketing scheme like this would have a big impact as well at turn the social network into a cesspool.

Social networks are already messy. I'd stop short of calling them cesspools, however. Software makes content better. Better software makes content I don't know I want more available to me. If something isn't interesting, or doesn't earn anyone money, people won't retweet it.

Fortunately for you, twitter is now forcing tweets into your timeline!

Re: Testing a way for you to make purchases on Twitter

#108

Post by [deleted] »

chton wrote: post #50
Touche wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you voluntarily follow the ads does it not still make them ads?

Then any corporate accounts you follow now are 'ads'. It's an added button, no more, no less. If that magically makes an otherwise neutral tweet an ad, you need a more rigorous definition of advertisement.

[deleted]
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