Twitter is a great platform for businesses, journalists and everyday people. We all know that. But what may not have occurred to you is that it could also be an incredibly useful commerce platform. At least one company was thinking differently to you.
A Portland, Oregon based startup called Chirpify claims that it “turns tweets into transactions, enabling consumers and businesses to buy, sell, donate and transact on Twitter.”
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Although founded in 2011, the company only officially launched its product today.
Chirpify’s product effectively integrates your Twitter account with PayPal, allowing you to make a variety of transactions over the social network.
If you’re a business, for instance, people can buy products from you simply by tweeting “@favoritebrand Buy”.
You can also donate to a cause of politician by tweeting “@cause Donate”.
The service also claims to be able to handle “peer-to-peer” transactions. So if a friend has to cover your bill at a restaurant, you can just “donate” the money them later. Assuming you both have Chirpify that is.
According to Mashable, Chirpify CEO and Founder Chris Teso has prior experience in this particular kind of social commerce.
Teso’s previous venture was called Sell Simply and was reportedly designed for small vendors selling on Etsy, eBay and Craigslist. While Chirpify caters to this segment, it also gunning for big brands.
Chirpify was only being used by one brand on launch. Teso appears hopeful, however, that it will expand quickly, given that it claims to provide a way for businesses to instantly “monetise their followers”.
Should the company experience the rapid expansion it appears to be anticipating, it will be interesting to see whether it will be able to live up its corporate motto: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”
