Get ready to see a lot more "Buy" buttons on Twitter.
Twitter — with the help of payments startup Stripe — is expanding its buy buttons so that anyone can sell their stuff via tweets. San Francisco-based Stripe introduced a new product Monday called Relay, which makes it easier for retailers to sell their products within third-party apps that use Stripe, including Twitter.
Relay is a set of tools that streamlines the buying and selling process for retailers and developers. "For stores, you can use Relay to enable instant purchases in third-party mobile apps," the company wrote in a statement. "For app developers, Relay is a set of APIs for building great in-app buying experiences. People can buy products directly within your app rather than getting pushed to third-party websites."
Though Stripe has powered Twitter's "buy" buttons since they began to roll out last year, Monday's news marks a significant expansion of the service in that now anyone can use Stripe's technology to sell items through Twitter. Glasses retailer Warby Parker and ad subscription box service FabFitFun both showcased their "Buy" buttons on Twitter Monday.
IMAGE: TWITTER
Relay's functionality isn't limited to just Twitter. Developers can use Stripe's tools to streamline the selling process within their apps. In the past, developers have had to direct users to a website or a separate app to complete a transaction — but Relay allows those purchases to take place within the same app.
Stripe, which was founded in 2010 by brothers Patrick and John Collison, is valued at about $5 billion, according to recent reports — a nearly $500 million jump in less than a year. The company powers payments for a number of Silicon Valley startups, including Lyft, InstaCart, TaskRabbit and Postmates.
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