Twitter as micropayment mechanism

Dec 18, 2008 by Dan Taylor    16 Comments    Posted under: News, Social Media, Technology

Twitter as a way to make micropayments.  Sure there are plenty of microtransaction specialists out there, but lets say I just want a quick and easy way to shoot @datadirt my half of last night’s bar tab?  Sure, I could login to PayPal, enter Ritchie’s address, and he’d have the cash shortly.  But what if we’ve just met up in the office and I feel like a schmuck for not having the $30 on me?  What if I’m nowhere near a computer, but happen to have my iPhone with me?  Well…if Atlanta startup Twitpay gets their way, a simple ‘@datadirt twitpay $30 – inebriation would then have money in Mr. Pettaur’s Twitpay account within 30 minutes.

Twitpay facilitates the transaction by monitoring any and all tweets containing the phrase Twitpay.  Your Twitpay account can be replenished using a simple ‘pay all’ site such as PayPal.  Once a recipient has accumulated more than $10 in their Twitpay account, they can then cash this out in the form of Amazon Gift Cards, with hopefully more options down the road, a Twitpay charity, or Twitpay itself.  Twitpay will take a modest $.05 fee on all transfers over $.99.  Fair enough, you provide a convenient service; I’ll give you a nickel for it.

Settling last night’s bar tab might be one use for Twitpay, but I believe this application to have a number of other uses.  What about paying the bills?  @DIRECTV already has some of the best customer service I’ve ever seen via twitter, how about paying my monthly bill?  A simple @DIRECTV twitpay $125.99, @USGovStudentLoans twitpay $132.48, etc. all on the go with a simple tweet?  Could that be any easier?

How about the applications for free-to-play/microtransaction based video games?  @Battlefield Heroes twitpay $2 AK-47.  @Blizzard twitpay $15 character customization.  No complicated logins, no passwords to remember, just tweet it and pay it.

Better yet, talk about immediate emergency response.  Hurricane Katrina Strikes? California has (yet another) earthquake?  @RedCross twitpay $50.  At this time, $50 is the maximum amount allowed by Twitpay, but that’s not to say you couldn’t retweet the $50 more than once.  Given the rise in NPO interest in micro donations, Twitpay is something that they should ALL be seriously considering.

Twitpay CEO and Co-Founder Michael D. Ivey states, “Ideally we want to enable social giving on Twitter, but beyond that, we could enable charitable giving, such as to the Red Cross. We’re very excited to be able to help people do good over Twitter.”

Still in its infancy, Twitpay was created during the Atlanta Startup Weekend 2, an experiment in entrepreneurship designed to conceive, develop and launch a fully functional company within 54 hours.  Be sure not to miss their FAQ’s for an example on how FAQ’s should be written.

As more and more companies and brands begin to harness the power of social media, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a ‘Pay by Twitpay’ option popping up in more places than you’d expect.

Oh, and if you’re feeling particularly generous (after all, it IS the season of giving), @MountainDan is now accepting bribes gifts.

Related articles

• The Secret to Twitter Monetization Is…
• Twalala for Twitterflittering
• Gift Guide for the Twitter addict