"Twitter’s not going to make their money with advertising. So how can they be a Billion Dollar Company in a year?", writes Nate Westheimer over at Silicon Alley Insider.
The answer, he says, is for Twitter to get into the P2P mobile payments space.
It's an interesting idea and one that merits some consideration.
Imagine the scenario: you're out at a restaurant with friends or colleagues and it's time to divvy up the bill. You open up your favorite mobile Twitter client or use Twitter via SMS to reimburse the person who is going to settle with the waiter. Instead of the @ (reply) or "d" (Direct Message) machine code, a "p" for payment is used instead.
Say something like "p @sohear $30" (thanks very much!)
Westheimer's argument is that for P2P mobile payments to really take off (and there are already a number of entrants into this space) it needs to be built on top of an existing mobile messaging service, not a standalone online payments system such as PayPal.
Specifically, Westheimer says the communication platform will need to be:
What do I think of Westheimer's idea? One word: brilliant. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.