Twitter’s stock price got a boost yesterday following comments by a MasterCard executive about its interest in partnering with the micro-blogging giant. According to a CNBC report, the president of international markets at MasterCard said the company sees social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as potential partners in Silicon Valley.
Will MasterCard partner with Twitter?
The MasterCard executive told CNBC that the payment processing firm would be interested in working with Twitter and Facebook as these platforms develop their payment services. Twitter’s “Buy Now” button allow users to promptly make a transaction by clicking on a button embedded in a tweet, and this is of interest to the financial company.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, an electronics payment company, which in some ways is competing with MasterCard. Therefore, such comments by the MasterCard executive appear more like a reflection that they are interested in working with tech companies instead of a hint about an actual deal between it and Twitter.
In the interview with CNBC, MasterCard’s Ann Cairns said, “I think the way we would work with them is just the way we work with the other tech giants, we would figure out what we can do together, where our network could play into their space and connect up.”
Where MasterCard fits in
Detailing on where they could fit in, Cairns said, “Obvious spaces are if they want to offer payments to their clients and if you think about somebody like Facebook, it would probably be something like a P2P (peer-to-peer) service.”
In the U.S., Facebook launched a peer-to-peer money transfer service through Messenger last year. Currently, users can send money via Messenger by linking their MasterCard or Visa debit card, but as of now, there is no official partnership between the social media giant and MasterCard.
In 2014, Twitter partnered with Groupe BPCE to launch a service that allows P2P transfers via tweet. MasterCard has been partnering with technology firms lately. MasterCard holders can use their card with Apple Pay, which is a contact-less payment service, and Google’s own solution Android Pay.
On Monday, shares of the micro-blogging giant, which have been battered in recent months because of constant concerns about its stagnating user growth, popped 7% to close at $17.09.
