The Wall Street Journal has been reporting this week that CEO of both Twitter and payment processing company Square, and longtime advocate of Bitcoin, Jack Dorsey has been a prominent investor in the two-year-old company CoinList during their Polychain Capital-led $10 million funding round.
What is CoinList?
CoinList was founded in San Francisco two years ago in 2017 with the aim of helping startup companies raise capital through the sale of cryptocurrency. They made waves almost out the gate during the cryptocurrency boom in ICOs (initial coin offerings) when tokens were exchanged for the money the companies were raising. With the roller coaster-like sudden rise and fall in Bitcoin, the market for ICOs blew up with it before it then bombed.
As the CEO of payments company Square, Dorsey has had Bitcoin of his own for some time, and has often advocated the positives of the cryptocurrency. Square recently announced that they will be introducing a new cryptocurrency service of their own called Square Crypto, as they also revealed that in the second quarter of 2019 alone they generated as much as $125 million in Bitcoin revenue.
The Future of Bitcoin
Despite being a fond advocate of Bitcoin, Dorsey said recently to the Australian Financial Review “[Bitcoin is] not functional as a currency. The peaks and troughs are like an investment asset and are equivalent to gold. What we need to do is make it more usable and accessible as a currency, but it’s not there yet.”
He did add, however, that he thinks Bitcoin can and will eventually grow and become more widely adopted by the online community by saying, “I think [Bitcoin is] the best because it’s been the most resilient, it’s around for 10 years, it has a great brand and it’s been tested a bunch. As I look at all cryptocurrencies that could fill that role of being the native currency for the internet, [bitcoin is] a pretty high probability.”
CoinList will aid new startups in raising money through token sales, and will then use that cash to build a new exchange platform they’re calling CoinList Trade. Along with CoinList Trade, they’ll also set up a cryptocurrency wallet, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Today the Official Merchant Services Blog would like to focus on social media advertising, and the recent steps Twitter has taken in order to expand their marketing prowess and outreach.
The social media giant with its 140 million monthly active users is second only to Facebook. As we have previously reported here, Facebook had taken steps to create a realm of e-commerce unseen before in the social media world. By transitioning from the ‘Like’ button for certain pages and products, to the ‘Want’ button, in an attempt to allow users to create personalized wish lists, the move will eventually lead to more purchases through Facebook itself.
The move spurred social media innovation, and Twitter has since come up with its own targeted marketing approach. The new capabilities will allow marketers to identify, advertise and even send direct messages to consumers based on interests and likes. For example, a consumer who has indicated an interest in digital photography would see ads for cameras and other photography related products.
There are two main ways Twitter will attempt to narrow down its user base.
First, Twitter has divided its users into 350 different interest categories. They range from “education” to “investing” to “sports,” and are further divided into subcategories.
The second way involves targeting a more specific set of users, by creating a custom list of usernames that are relevant to what they want to promote. The custom segments would allow marketers to reach users who share similar interests with that username’s followers, however they cannot target that users’ entire following.
Twitter has given the example of an indie band promoter that creates a custom audience by adding the ‘@usernames’ of similar bands, ensuring an audience with a similar taste in music.
Questions still remain about the overall effectiveness of the targeted ads. For example, the click through and conversion rates are still unknown. Twitter has been testing the system using beta advertisers, who can attest that there has been “significantly increased audience reach” as well as high engagement rates.
To bring this all back home, I believe there is outstanding value in Twitters’ targeted advertising system. It will allow marketers to go beyond ‘Promoting’ their tweets, a system that would raise your post to the top of users Twitter feeds for a short time, however there was no targeting involved whatsoever. With this new system, end users see more products that appeal to them or are related to their interests in some way. Thus driving sales for that particular product, if the right target market is reached. This could be especially useful to the average small business owner, who may only rely on social media to promote the company, instead of a dedicated web page.
This could lead to a large boost in mobile commerce, through Twitter users who simply find an advertised product to their specific liking. The push is meant to increase ad dollars to Twitter from eager marketers, as well as more effectively reach its user base with relevant ads and content. It seems logical that the next step would be for Twitter to implement a direct buying feature for their 140 million users, this would further spur innovation and the competitive mobile payments market, as well as open up new E-Commerce solutions for businesses and advertisers.
Today’s installment of the Official Merchant Services Blog is on the rise of E-commerce in social media. Last week, we covered the E-commerce offerings of the video game industry in detail. Today, I’d like to take a look at the role E-commerce is beginning to play in the realm of Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites.
Social Media User Base
Social media sites have expanded rapidly over the last few years. For those who don’t remember, Facebook started out as a place strictly for college level students to network. Now all-inclusive, Facebook is the world’s most populated social gaming and media platform with 955 million users worldwide.
Twitter is second with over 500 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is third with just about 175 million, and Google + trails all three with about 90 million. With such a massive user base to reach out to, an E-commerce presence is the next logical step, and as usual, Facebook is taking the lead. This article will focus on what Facebook has done to streamline the E-commerce aspect of social media.
“Like” Pages
It’s safe to say most Facebook users are familiar with the “Like” button and similarly, the “Like” pages. These pages describe the interests and activities of the user, offer updates to certain products and promotions, as well as allow users to share their thoughts on those products.
The end goal of any merchants Facebook “Like” page is the get the most number of “Likes” and subsequently the most number of page views and purchases of your particular product. The problem lies with differentiating potential customers from current ones. If someone “likes” a page for a product, they may already own it, be saving their money for that product, or just think its neat but don’t want or need it. As of right now, Facebook has no way to separate these users.
Social E-Commerce
According to Facebook’s SEC Form Q-10, 1.6% of users spent over $1 billion on Virtual goods (accessories for virtual characters, tools in Farmville, etc) in the first six months of 2012. That is money spent on items never seen outside of the browser. If the market for non-tangible goods can be that lucrative, the market for actual goods Facebook users enjoy must be bigger.
Carol Rozwell, Vice President at the tech research firm Gartner had a call to action for merchants unsure of the potential for social media e-commerce. “It’s crucial that organizations implement approaches to handling social media now. The effort involved in addressing social media commentary is not good cause to ignore relevant comments or solvable issues.” According to Gartner, although more than 50% of organizations track social media only 23% actually collect and analyze data.
In June, Facebook made a move to simplify mobile e-commerce payments by decreasing the number of steps involved in checking out, from seven individual steps to two, and eliminating the need to type. The Facebook mobile app SkyBucks, is another innovation in E-commerce, it allows you to charge your virtual accessories to your phone bill directly.
More recently, the social media giant rolled out an offer for stores using Shopify. Since partnering, Facebook is now offering free $50 Facebook Ad credits. This is in addition to the credits from Google AdWords and Amazon Products that Shopify merchants already enjoy. The promotion is another step for Facebook in the E-commerce direction.
The “Want” Button
Above I identified a need Facebook had, the ability to discriminate between current and potential customers for their advertisers and business users. In early July, the Ecommerce Times had a story on Facebooks next big thing: The “want” button.
The button will allow users to create ‘wish list’ of products that they like or want, but do not currently have. Merchants will want to focus on who has marked their product as ‘wanted’ and who has not. The benefits of the “want” button go beyond sales. The button would allow for highly targeted marketing as well as a sharing of ‘wish lists’ between users. Ultimately the goal should be for the wish list to take its place among the social media landscape, along side a user’s general info and status updates.
For the Consumer
To the average consumer and Facebook user, this should add to the ease of purchases that has increased recently. With the additional “want” info that the site will collect, you will be able to see what your friends and family want, add similar items to your personal wish list, and research potential gifts for you friends discretely. All of which add value to Facebook’s ever-increasing platform.
For the Merchant
For merchants looking to expand on Facebook, the E-commerce addition will do wonders. The added marketing affects will help businesses increase name recognition and sales, while still connecting with the end user. It seems to me, that Facebooks E-commerce push will benefit all involved.
Today The Official Merchant Services Blog turns its tech-obsessed eyes once again to the Mobile Payment Solution sector. Recently, Host Merchant Services became fully mobile and able to offer a mobile payment solution for Android and iPhone devices. This expansion continues, and HMS now also provides a payment processing solution for iPads as well. You can read about the expanded HMS Services in our April 9, 2012 Blog Entry.
Mobile devices are ingrained in the lives of consumers these days. Like the recurring ad sarcastically states, the smartphone beta test is over. And people are wandering around everywhere with their phone bringing their social media, camera, and buying power with them.
Suri, the voice of the iPhone, is holding the hands of stars from Samuel L. Jackson to Zooey Deschanel, helping them manage such difficult life tasks as making gazpacho to putting off cleaning till the next day on one’s calendar.
Coming with this ingratiation into our daily lives are two key elements.
We’re really just one artificial intelligence glitch/accident/sabotage away from launching the type of dystopian sci-fi worldview found in Terminator, The Matrix or Magnus Robot Fighter.
We’re flying full force into a world where we’ll also start to wave our phones around like a Hogwarts Magic Wand, paying as we go from place to place, store to store.
Mobile Payments are brisk and bustling because people are buzzing to take advantage of the convenience they offer. Here’s a graphic based on data compiled by the AITE Group showing the trend in spending via smartphone in a 5-year stretch:
But it’s not all phones-n-roses. As one might expect, the state that’s home to Cyberdyne Systems and our eventual AI-overlords Skynet, has a university — the University of California — that did a study titled “Mobile Payments: Consumer Benefits and New Privacy Concerns.”
The bottom line of this study is that American consumers are still wary of what this convenient technology will bring. The study found some interesting answers to questions about consumer thoughts on their privacy.
The study found that respondents overwhelmingly oppose the revelation of contact information to merchants when making purchases with mobile payment systems and an even higher level of opposition exists to systems that track consumers’ movements through their mobile phones.
This article by Kit Eaton at Fastcompany.com dissects the numbers in the study. Eaton states that: “The numbers are stark. When asked if they thought their phones should “share information with stores when they visit and browse without making a purchase,” 96% objected to the tracking, 79% said they definitely would forbid it, and 17% said they “probably” wouldn’t allow it–meaning just 4% were indifferent or positive about the idea. When the question was instead about information sharing (phone number, address, and so on) at the actual point of sale, 81% objected to phone-number sharing–a mere 15% said they’d probably allow it and 3% definitely so. Similar figures emerged when the information shared was respondents’ home address. “
This is all well and good and you can download the study here at this link. But what the study seems to overlook is exactly how many people, many of the people most likely polled in that very study, are already well past the point of no return in terms of their privacy concerns.
Any of those who object to tracking are likely already being tracked by Google and Facebook, social media they use with ease and frequency from their smartphones.
All those who object to sharing contact information may have already shared this information easily and readily when making an online purchase in the past few years. And statistics indicate that e-commerce is booming and replacing brick and mortar in the retail sales tug-of-war.
Eaton catches on to this flaw in the study, and states in her article: “And that’s the key to unraveling this problem right there: When you do use a current-tech store loyalty card you are effectively voluntarily giving the store your personal information, and “tracking” yourself. It’s why the cards exist, of course–they’re partly there as a sales incentive, to get customers back in the door via money-off offers, but mainly so the store can collate information about customers and work out what kind of products to stock, what offers to run, and what future products to plan for.”
And Eaton even points out that in a Pew Research Survey, 71% of Americans use the internet for shopping — meaning that they’ve already typed in their personal contact information.
So essentially, Mobile Payments seem primed to take advantage of the marketplace. The worry over security is still genuine to some extent — identity theft and phasing scams and data breaches abound as we get more and more tech ingrained. But in the end, the American consumers already dove headfirst into this when they fell in love with social media. The tweets, the +1’s and the Likes have already been tracking you. So when Facebook transforms itself into Skynet, or simply when Facebook and Google go toe-to-toe with Visa in the titanic tussle for your smartphone swipes … your dollars will be as easy to find as your latest status update or check-in.
Since Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006, both consumers and businesses have been growing and learning together on how best to use this new mass communication tool. Of course Twitter is the micro blogging service that limits ‘tweets’ to a 140 character limit. The real question is: Can Twitter effectively be used to grow your business? The answer is an unqualified “Yes!”.
Consider research conducted in September 2011 by Maritz Research and evolve24 which surveyed a panel of 1,298 U.S. consumers who reported being active Twitter users. The survey participants had also previously used Twitter to complain about a specific product, service, brand, or company.
The Maritz Research findings revealed that even though fully half of the Twitter complainers expected a response from the company directly – less than one third of the complaints received a company reply. To the great benefit of those companies who did respond to Twitter complaints, fully 83% said they liked or loved hearing from the company. Imagine your feelings as a disgruntled consumer if you received no reply at all as was the case with over 70% of the complainers. You can see the details of the complete study here.
Suffice it to say that if you are a business owner you will absolutely benefit from the following actions:
2. Promote your Twitter name to your current customers in every way possible.
3. Tweet out anything that your company does of significance. Don’t worry if you only have a small number of followers to start with.
4. Monitor (search for) your company name on Twitter frequently and most importantly reply to every single customer (or prospect) communication.
Need more evidence that Twitter can help grow your business and your brand? Here is a true story of how Twitter grew the reputation of WordPress hosting company 34SP.com in Manchester, United Kingdom. In early August 2011 a wave of violence swept across the UK precipitated by a series of sharp government spending cuts designed to cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs through 2015. In the aftermath of the destruction which saw shop windows broken and cars smashed and burned, one British citizen created a website to organize a public cleanup effort. The website which is located at riotcleanup.co.uk is hosted by 34SP.com. After an amazing flurry of positive publicity for the website, the Twitter hashtag #ukcleanup went viral inundating the website’s servers and slowing the site to a crawl.
After a multitude of tweets complaining about the website accessibility, 34SP.com donated a dedicated server and ramped up the capability of the website to withstand the nearly 2 million visitors per hour that the website experienced during peak traffic volumes. The Twitter complaint behavior turned nearly 100% positive as word went around that 34SP.com had risen to the challenge and created a massive positive experience for UK riot cleanup visitors and a boost for the 34SP.com brand.
So make a point of engaging your customers and prospects with Twitter and reap the benefits. Of course you can also follow all the latest information on Twitter from Host Merchant Services.
CoinList was founded in San Francisco two years ago in 2017 with the aim of helping startup companies raise capital through the sale of cryptocurrency. They made waves almost out the gate during the cryptocurrency boom in ICOs (initial coin offerings) when tokens were exchanged for the money the companies were raising. With the roller coaster-like sudden rise and fall in Bitcoin, the market for ICOs blew up with it before it then bombed.
In June, Facebook made a move to 
