As the world waits with bated breath to hear from Apple, I thought we should take a moment to consider Twitter today. With so much in their favour, and so much already clear about what to do and what not to do, will they get payments right this time?

 

 

This morning, while contemplating what the Apple mobile payment announcement holds for us today (will it change mobile payments forever?), I found a Twitter policy update in my inbox. So I thought we could pass the time until we learn the REAL TRUTH about Apple by contemplating what Twitter Payments may mean to mobile operator PSMS revenues and indeed to other providers in the vibrant new digital money ecosystem as described in my recently published book, The Digital Money Game.

Back in the early 2000s I worked with the company that invented SMS. later, as product manager at one of the leading mobile operator groups in the world, I had a lot to do with generating revenue from premium SMS. This remained our “Killer App” for many years, despite the best efforts to generate revenue from so many other payments initiatives.

Naturally therefore Twitter’s email this morning piqued my interest, to say the least:

“We've updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to reflect new features we're testing (starting in the U.S.) to allow you to buy merchandise from some of the most popular names on Twitter, without leaving the Twitter experience.”

Twitter’s new policy covers the use of their commerce offering, that they are currently rolling out in the US. As people will now provide payment details, shipping address and more, the privacy policy has changed as well.

The privacy policies are also affected as they relate to personal data regarding location and individual and aggregate data that we share on twitter.

Over the next few blogs I will investigate what this may mean and how it relates to other newly launched initiatives from around the world. Will it fizzle out, like some services launched by Facebook and Twitter have done in the past? Or this time, is it a real threat that can take a bite out of providers revenue and steal your partners away.

• Will Twitter payments deliver a blow to the payments revenue generated by mobile operators?
• How does Twitter’s strategy fit in to The Digital Money Game?
• Where does it leave the other players in the ecosystem
• How does it affect projects you have on the boil – should you abandon them or invest more?

The Digital Money Game is growing more complex and exciting by the day, and with the Apple announcement expected today, by the hour I would add. If you’ve bought our books you may notice they are packed with very recent analysis and references, literally to the day they were published. Additionally we have a splendid ability to roll out updates to our books. And with so much changing I expect we will have plenty to discuss. Do join us to explore ideas at The Digital Money Group on LinkedIn.

f you’d like to be notified of updates and additional resources specially created for readers of our books, please drop us a note at contact@shiftthought.com mentioning the book title, date of purchase and country of purchase.

Author of The Digital Money Game, co-author Virtual Currencies – From Secrecy to Safety

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