Dorsey pairs up Twitter, Square for first time
Twitter users will be able to make donations to political campaigns directly from app
The two companies founded by Jack Dorsey, Twitter and Square, have forged their first official partnership.
Twitter users will be able to make donations to political campaigns directly from the Twitter app thanks to technology being provided by Square, a digital payments company, the companies announced Tuesday.
Both companies are being run by Dorsey. At Twitter, Dorsey has been CEO on an interim basis since July as the San Francisco company searches for a permanent chief executive. He’s considered a top candidate for the job, though the Twitter board of directors has stated that the new CEO of the company cannot hold the same post at another company. Square has confidentially filed for an initial public offering expected to take place by year’s end.
Dorsey retweeted the announcement from both companies, underlining how closely entwined he is in both operations.
Campaigns will be able to tweet a “donate now” link that takes a user to a donation form without leaving the Twitter app. The user signs in and makes a donation and then can tweet the donation to followers. The next time the user wants to donate from a tweet, he or she enters the amount and the system will remember them.
The ability to make donations in tweets “is something campaigns have been asking for for a long time,” Jenna Golden, Twitter’s head of political advertising sales, told USA TODAY.
This was not Twitter’s only deal this week to put transactions inside tweets. Twitter said Monday that it was working with another payments start-up, Stripe, to shop inside tweets.
The ability to make donations in tweets “is something campaigns have been asking for for a long time.” Jenna Golden, Twitter’s head of political advertising sales