Twitter Buying Payments Company CardSpring

Twitter has agreed to buy CardSpring, a payments infrastructure company, to fuel the transformation of its service into a platform for online commerce.

CardSpring's services allow merchants to offer and track promotions across channels. Its technology is part of First Data's Offerwise, which is used by clients such as the social media company Foursquare.

"As we work on the future of commerce on Twitter, we’re confident the CardSpring team and the technology they’ve built are a great fit with our philosophy regarding the best ways to bring in-the-moment commerce experiences to our users," says Nathan Hubbard, Twitter's head of commerce, in a blog post July 17 announcing the acquisition.

Twitter hired Hubbard nearly a year ago as part of its push to enable more e-commerce on its platform. Hubbard previously worked at Live Nation Entertainment's Ticketmaster.

Twitter's commerce plans leaked in February when images of a mock-up demonstrated plans to enable purchasing through the online marketplace Fancy.com. At the time, Twitter was reportedly working with the payment processor Stripe. This month, Fancy's app added "Buy Now" buttons that directed to a checkout page within Twitter's app in what might have been an accidental reveal of the technology.

Social media rival Facebook is also testing a "buy" button to let users shop from its website.

"We see the intersection of payments and digital media as an opportunity to revolutionize how consumers use credit and debit cards, while helping retailers to connect and communicate with their offline shoppers - much in the same way the Internet has enabled online stores to create relationships with their online customers," CardSpring says in a blog post.

"At Twitter, we will continue to grow the adoption of our platform and work with our publisher, financial, and retail partners to create new, innovative commerce experiences for consumers," CardSpring says.