Philippe Dauman, Jr. is no stranger to (new) media. He is, of course, the son of media giant and Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA) (NASDAQ:VIAB) CEO Phillip Dauman. Junior comes to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) where he worked on numerous directives and programs over the last six and a half years. Most recently he held the title of “Strategic Partner Development Manager” within Google’s mobile commerce division. Or according to Mr Dauman’s LinkedIn page he “helped build Google’s commerce & payments business across online, offline and mobile channels.”
Dauman brings experience in both content partnerships and commerce experience on both a global and mobile level. While Twitter would certainly welcome the revenue stream from its imminent commerce platform, it knows it has to balance “features” while keeping commerce noninvasive.
Numerous news outlets and e-commerce sites have reported, through “leaked” reports, that Twitter has been in talks with both PayPal and Stripe to handle the back-end of the platform that will allow companies and brands to sell directly through Twitter’s main news feed. Recently, the company also swept away Nathan Hubbard from Ticketmaster to concentrate on commerce.
Twitter: Commerce and engagement
In a perfect world for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), commerce will lead to a higher engagement level with its advertisers and hundreds of millions of users. Facebook, Twitter, and a host of messaging services, including Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s recently acquired WhatsApp, are fighting for your mobile time. Users who can remain connected to one for all their needs is the “holy grail” for social networks.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s CEO Dick Costolo addressed the leaks on its commerce platform entitled Cards during Twitter’s first quarterly earnings report since the company went public. Costolo called it a “rich canvas and additional kinds of action to Twitter in which the 140 characters really becomes a caption to this much richer card that carries with it interactivity and actions.” He described Cards as “the vehicle through which we think about commerce opportunities.”
He also spoke about rivers quite a bit and that Twitter wanted some “real estate” one one of those rivers. Presumably, he was speaking of somewhere users spend more time, rather that with their competitors who offer more features in the fight for engagement hours.
