Twitter is going in a new direction with Elon Musk at the helm.
The company recently announced it had partnered with online investing platform eToro to offer its platform's users more features to use in the future.
Twitter ceased to be the microblogging platform people knew it as after 2006, following Musk's merging of the company with his own X Corporation.
The Twitter logo at their offices in New York City on January 12, 2023.
Twitter-eToro Partnership Details
eToro mentioned in its announcement regarding the partnership's closing that it would provide Twitter with the features necessary to expand its $Cashtags feature and lets its users search for more real-time prices for stocks, crypto, and other assets.
Currently, Twitter users searching using a $Cashtag symbol can see live price charts for some financial assets, specifically S&P 500 and shares of some companies like Tesla. For those unaware of the feature, Twitter launched the $Cashtag symbol in Dec. 2022 to let users search for a ticker or coin symbol like $TSLA, $APPL, or $ETH to get prices directly in search results, per Tech Crunch.
While Twitter's $Cashtag feature is helpful for some, it is somewhat restrictive with its offering. With eToro partnering with Twitter, however, users can see and do more from its live price charts.
The company mentioned to CNBC in an exclusive interview that Twitter can use this expanded feature come Apr. 13 and view not just market charts on "an expanded range of financial instruments," but also buy and sell stocks and other assets from eToro. This expansion allows users to further their financial education, or as Gizmodo puts it, "make money."
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It's unclear if eToro is paying any fees to Twitter if a user comes to its platform through Twitter's $Cashtags and completes a transaction; Tech Crunch asked eToro for a comment on the matter, but the company said it can't comment on its commercial agreement with Twitter.
Nevertheless, Yoni Assia, eToro's CEO, told CNBC that eToro has "seen more and more of our users interact on Twitter [and] educate themselves about the markets" as it grew over the past three years.
"There is very high-quality content, real-time content on financial analysis of companies and what's happening around the world. We believe this partnership will enable us to reach those new audiences [and] connect better the brands of Twitter and eToro."
Twitter's Spiritual Demise
Twitter becoming more than just a microblogging app is a forgone conclusion in Musk's eyes. The Chief Twit himself previously mentioned that he believes there is a "transformative opportunity" in payments, which could be done similarly to an exchange of information, per The Verge's sources.
Musk's idea of adding a banking service to Twitter wasn't entirely far-fetched; it has precedence. Meta previously launched a feature on Facebook's Messenger that enables users to send and receive money through Meta Pay.
Another thing to consider is Musk's experience with financial technology. Believe it or not, Musk previously owned PayPal when it was known as X.com, which he co-founded in 1999.
As such, it wasn't weird for Musk to consider adding banking features to Twitter.
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