Twitter, American Express Letting People Purchase Goods Via Hashtag 106
Nerval's Lobster writes "What could possibly go wrong with this? American Express has announced a partnership with Twitter, giving customers the ability to sync "eligible cards" with the social network. Tweeting special product hashtags (i.e., #uselessjunk) will purchase a product via that synced card. American Express will then send a purchase-confirmation Tweet, and the usual shipping-and-handling of the product will commence. For Twitter, the partnership also holds significant advantages. If this initial foray succeeds, it could potentially evolve into a workable e-commerce model, and thus a separate stream of revenue for the social network aside from advertising. Also, research has shown that people tend to spend more money when using credit cards as opposed to cash. It's also quite possible that a streamlined online purchase mechanism—think any number of e-commerce Websites' "Buy Now" buttons—could compel potential customers to buy more often and in larger amounts."
Seeing how secure Twitter is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seeing how secure Twitter is, what could possibly go wrong?
Eh (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure I understand. How does one browse products via twitter, or if one isn't in twitter, why would one use it rather than the purchase channel of the site they are on?
Irresponsible economics at its finest (Score:5, Insightful)
could compel potential customers to buy more often and in larger amounts.
Gee, wasn't spam supposed to do that? Businesses who go after impulse purchases like this are a danger to the foolish and an annoyance to everyone else. A credit card company should not be trying to create economic activity, only to facilitate pre-existing activity or pre-existing needs that are encumbered by technological and social boundaries. This crosses the line into monstrous.
will be abused in 3...2...1... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is see this as being ripe for abuse. The first time this goes live, someone is going to link a hashtag of something innocuous (like #wintercoat) to something expensive, and lots of people won't realize the mistake until they read their monthly bill and see a charge for $2000 on it. I can't imagine the system will last more than a day once people start complaining.
Re:Hackers wet dream! (Score:4, Insightful)
... and the price of hacked Twitter accounts just went up by 1000. I'm glad I don't use it.
Unless Amex lets you update your shipping address by Tweet, this doesn't really make a hacked Twitter account any more valuable. It's more annoying for you it someone hacks your account and tweets a thousand #BuyPlaxtexTamponsNow tweets using your account, but a hacker in Nigeria probably isn't going to bother sending products to people they don't know. And since a merchant will need to register with Amex, the hacker won't be able to tweet #BuyMyFakeCrapNow to get you to automatically buy whatever fake crap he's trying to sell. Amex will be able to vet merchants.
Re:Irresponsible economics at its finest (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree, but I don't know what fantasyland do you currently live in where credit card companies are not trying to create economic activity. People wouldn't be able to buy the crap they can't afford if it wasn't for pocketable credit, a.k.a. credit cards. In other words: the credit card companies were creating economic activity almost since day one, by allowing the gullible to buy stuff they can't afford. This hashtag purchase option just further lowers the bar that is already too low. IMHO it'll only be used by the most clueless -- those who are easiest to exploit by the system anyway. The whole idea is basically just to further exploit the underprivileged, as those are the ones vastly most likely to buy stuff they can't afford. It's not even shafting the little people, it's shafting the poorest of the little people. It is monstrous, but it's not new.
Re:Eh (Score:4, Insightful)
Advertisers are morons. I work with them all day and they just don't have a clue how the real world works. What will happen is they'll have an awesome first month... then, slowly, the company will come to realize the majority of those purchases were either mistakes, scams or outright theft. By the time they realize their mistake the people that came up with the idea will have already collected their commissions/bonus and will have moved on to their next hair-brained idea or even a new company.