NYSE:TWTR Down As Social Commerce Hits Twitter

NYSE:TWTR may have bought itself a spot back on the top of the social platform heap with the rollout of its new “Buy Now” button.

NYSE:TWTR (the New York Stock Exchange acronym for Twitter Inc., or the Twitter corporation, typically used by commentators wishing to make it clear that they are referring to a corporate entity with a COO and CEO, not to the social media website with the ubiquitous blue Twitter bird as its mascot) has made headlines recently as its search for a new CEO hit snag after snag. It appears they have now settled on Jack Dorsey, who has been acting as interim CEO for TWTR and demonstrated with the latest social commerce innovation — the new “Buy Now” button — that he is prepared to make bold moves and ready to take Twitter Inc. into new territory.

It was not Jack Dorsey but Twitter head of commerce Nathan Hubbard who revealed to the world just days ago that the novel social commerce agreement (a collaboration with Demandware Inc, Shopify Inc. and Bigcommerce Inc.) will move forward after a test period. Twitter’s social commerce move is geared towards generating new revenue streams for Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) by allowing retailers to sell within the space of a tweet. As NYSE:TWTR stock dipped this week, Hubbard told media that a huge proportion of tweets contain the phrases “I want” and “I need.” The commerce team at TWTR interpreted this as a social media “cry for help” en masse and answered the call with the inking of a social commerce agreement and the rollout of a shiny new “Buy Now” button.

Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Demandware have been engaged because so many smaller retailers are linked to these organizations. NYSE:TWTR has made it clear that they want to make it easy for a variety of retailers to come on board and sell on the Twitter platform. For this, Twitter Inc. turned to big-name collaborators, and it seems they have already been rewarded for their enterprising spirit. Best Buy is one retailer already on board, and Stripe: Relay services will be used to ensure that seller product catalogs can be represented in an organized manner.

NEW YORK, NY – (NYSE) on November 7, 2013 in New York City. Twitter goes public on the NYSE.
(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)[/caption]

Hedge fund manager Chris Demuth is skeptical about the prospects of the NYSE:TWTR stocks (down 8 percent at time of reporting) and maintains this cynicism in the face of startling news that the leadership at Twitter Inc. are even toying with the idea of changing the allowed word count of a Tweet (which has remained stoically at that infamous 140-character level, even as the NYSE:TWTR stock of the beleaguered Twitter Inc. company rose and fell).

Demuth quipped, “Are these the type of securities that are unknown? Under followed? Out of favor? Unloved? As The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson asked, “What, exactly, could you possibly know about Twitter that other people don’t?”

Demuth followed this comment with a droll flowchart, targeted at retail investors who analyze social commerce happenings. The flowchart suggests that unless you have some pretty earth-shattering insider information, the NYSE:TWTR stock under Jack Dorsey’s CEO leadership is nothing to get excited about (especially seeing as Dorsey is holding down two jobs – in addition to helming Twitter Inc. and striving to raise the struggling NYSE:TWTR stock, he is still CEO at Square).

“I remain a longtime skeptic of CEOs holding down two jobs, Square, the IPO market generally, TWTR, and TWTR’s oft rumored prospects as a deal target,” Demuth wrote.

What do you think of the bold social commerce moves by Jack Dorsey, Twitter Inc. CEO? Will the NYSE:TWTR earth move as social commerce hits the Twitter platform? Will you be pressing that new “Buy Now” button? Are you following NYSE:TWTR? Tell us in the comments.

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]