Chapter 03 Homework: American Express and Twitter

American Express and Twitter have partnered to offer a very unique service. American Express has literally turned Twitter into a shopping cart by allowing authorized users to purchase discounted products by simply tweeting the specified hastag to @AmexSync. American Express card holders that want to take advantage of this feature must sync their credit account with Twitter and then begin tweeting the products they want. Once tweeted, American Express will begin the order by sending out a confirmation e-mail, that once confirmed, will generate the shipping process. The purchase is then automatically charged to the users account. This partnership will benefit Twitter because first, it will motivate American Express card holders who currently don't have a Twitter account to create one and take advantage of the discounted products. Nevertheless, it will attract other companies to join and follow the same path. Currently, this partnership limits users to American Express account holders, but if successful, it will bring in other financial services and businesses to provide the same features to their account holders, ultimately, increasing the users on Twitter. This new system has created a paradigm shift (reshaping the way companies behave).
This partnership introduces an online marketplace for Twitter. This new method will bring buyers and sellers together, causing Twitter to become an intermediary between American Express and its cardholders. Overall, the business model used here is Business-to-Consumers as Twittter will allow American Express to sell to their consumers. On the other hand, Twitter and American Express are also conducting Business-to-Business transactions as Twitter sells their services to American Express. The ebusiness revenue model used in this partnership will be transaction fees. Twitter will charge American Express for every tweet used to purchase a product. This will generate more revenue for Twitter.
The list of pros and cons could be endless for consumers and businesses. Consumers involved in this feature might benefit from quicker transactions since they don't have to follow through the traditional purchase process of adding an item to a cart, placing the order, entering financial and shipping information, and finally placing the order. All those steps are automatically completed through stored information. Consumers will also benefit from the discounted prices due to the decrease in costs and easy access to numerous products on one site. On the other hand, consumers might be a bit fearful of hackers who might hack into their Twitter accounts and make unauthorized purchases on their behalf. Users unfamiliar with Twitter are most likely to be intimidated by the new feature and shy away from it. Other consumers might want to avoid disclosing their buying habits on a public site where all users have access, not only the businesses involved in the transaction. Benefits for businesses include the opportunity to change the way they interact and reach possible