Micropayments for microbloggers — it sounds like a no-brainer. In a community based on real-time content, social causes, and brand awareness, users will want to execute real-time transactions with the same enthusiasm with which they tweet about their favorite daily activities.
So goes the thinking behind a host of startups that aim to help users of microblogging site Twitter make payments and carry out online transactions as conveniently as appending 140-character updates to their profile pages. “It’s about making a statement in the stream and telling everyone what you stand for,” says Michael Ivey, chief executive of one such site, Twitpay, which lets Twitter users make online donations and pay for downloadable content. “When you donate to a charity or cause, you’re making it public. Look at it as payments attached to our intentions and aspirations.”
Another site, Twollars, lets users transact with virtual currencies, exchangeable for real money, in support of a cause, such as Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong or the Water Project, which aims to provide access to clean drinking water in developing nations. “There are no transaction charges if you are a donor,” says Twollars co-founder Eso Kant. The company relies on corporate sponsorships and charges fees for widgets, promotions, and microsites for charities, Kant explains. “We’re also educating charities on how to raise funds,” he says. “You want exposure? You want to bring your own charity — like the Pepsi Foundation? No problem — we’ll do it for you.”
The micropayments model goes to the core of who we are as people — our passions, political beliefs, cultural preferences, and aspirations. It’s no longer just about George Soros making a million-dollar donation to a drug treatment program and getting a lot of press for it; it’s about the millions of Twitter users making small donations and getting peer recognition for…