Twitter, Amex Launch Pay-By-Tweet Service

Twitter users will be able to pay for products with tweets by using a new American Express payment system integrated onto the microblogging site.

The “Amex Sync” integration allows users who sync their Amex cards with Twitter to buy selected items by including special hashtags.

American Express first launched its original Twitter Sync feature last year, which allowed customers to get discount deals by tweeting hashtags of special offers. Now it has extended the feature to allow payments.

This new arrangement aimed at providing a new source of financing for Twitter, which has so far been largely reliant on advertising revenue.

Understandably, neither Amex nor Twitter will discuss financial terms of their partnership, but Twitter doesn’t rule out taking a cut of future e-commerce sales.

“We’re convinced that commerce is going to be one of the areas (for which) advertisers are going to start using our platform,” Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s vice president of global brand strategy, told the Wall Street Journal.

E-commerce has been slow to take off on social networks, with retailers who have tried to use their presence on the sites to stimulate transactions reporting disappointing results.

In a statement, American Express said the feature “turns Twitter #hashtags into purchases in a unique and seamless way. American Express Cardmembers who sync their eligible Cards at sync.americanexpress.com/twitter and tweet special #hashtags can buy American Express Gift Cards and products from Amazon, Sony, Urban Zen and Xbox 360.”

It adds: “The $25 American Express Gift Card can be purchased using a synced American Express Card starting today for only $15 by tweeting #BuyAmexGiftCard25.”