Now Twitter Lets You Buy Stuff—With a Hashtag

Focus is on brand promotion for tweet purchases
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2013 11:25 AM CST

American Express and Twitter are teaming up to let people buy special deals with a song and a dance—or rather, a hashtag and a tweet in the latest attempt to boost Twitter-based commerce, reports CNN. The first item up for grabs? $25 AmEx gift cards for $15, which registered users can buy by typing "#BuyAmexGiftCard25." More goods will be coming tomorrow beginning at noon, including the Amazon Kindle Fire HD for a $50 discount and an Xbox Controller for about $10 off their regular price, according to Mashable.

Call the hashtag purchase "t-commerce." Twitter isn't spilling details about its cut of these deals, but since public tweets will be required to take advantage of these deals, analysts think brand promotion is a likely focus. If it takes off, though, expect to see a lot more hashtags turning up in advertisements in the future. (More Twitter stories.)

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