AFTER MONTHS OF rumours, Twitter has officially begun testing out a buy button directly on its service.

The service, which is partly powered by the online payment service Stripe founded by Limerick brothers John and Patrick Collison, will allow a small number of US users to buy goods directly from a tweet.

The focus appears to be on offers and goods that users won’t be able to find elsewhere in an attempt to encourage people to buy more on the site. The other draw is the simplicity of completing a purchase.

A purchase is made by tapping the buy button and entering in shipping and payment information. The company says that all payments and shipping information is encrypted and safely stored after the first transaction.

When asked whether the service will make its way over here, a spokesperson for Twitter Ireland told TheJournal.ie that as the company gets feedback on the service, it will “continue to roll this out to more users and across Twitter’s desktop site as well as markets outside the US.”

Since it’s a consumer product, it’s only focusing on feedback for now and the company is not sharing any details relating to revenue.

Rumours that Stripe was working with Twitter go back as far as the beginning of this year. The company, which was founded in 2010 and collects 2.9% in addition to a flat commission of $0.30 per charge, was valued at €1.3 billion after raising €59 million in January.

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