Twitter End Development on Buy Button

BuzzFeed

The idea of a buy button on Twitter was introduced when Dick Costolo was still running things. The thinking was that they could create product pages and they'd easily be able to make more money from sales. It hasn't worked out that well though, so three months ago they finally decided to disband the buy button committee.

In the past, it did seem like buy buttons on social media would be the next big thing. Users would see something they want to buy and they could just click a button to get it. A few social media services like Facebook and Instagram have put things into place and Snapchat has said they would like to start selling products in the future, but it is all very slow. Users are a little more wary about buying things on social media because of scams so they might only buy things once or twice. Twitter decided to grab onto the idea because most social media companies thought that it would be easy money but it never really fitted Twitter.

Twitter have always been focused more on how they could improve their core experience and that is necessary right now. Their stocks are still low and they really need to keep the money coming in. Because of this, the staff who haven't left Twitter after the committee was disbanded have either been moved to customer service or dynamic product ads.

Most of these will have moved into the product ads section as Twitter want to earn more money through them. Their recent earnings report found that the product ads encourage more click-throughs than promoted posts do and that they've earned them a lot of money. The more staff they can have to work on the dynamic product ads means the more money that they can possibly earn.

The best course of action for Twitter right now is to focus on what they're already good at. The buy button was always a maybe that'll do great in the future and because of that it wasn't focused on. Twitter need to be pushing what they're good at and that is what they're trying to do now. Ending the development on the buy button probably was the best idea and who knows, maybe this will change in the future, but for now, this was a good thing.

Rosina Brooker

Rosina is a Songbird writer with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is glad to be playing around with apps and writing about them in the mean time! Follow her @Songbird_Rosina

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