This photo illustrates Elon Musk’s Twitter account with over 80 million followers. … [+]
According to a CNBC report, Twitter users will be able trade stocks and crypto through a partnership agreement with online brokerage eToro. The feature is supposed to be rolling out today, though it’s not available at the time of this writing.
Elon Musk, the Twitter CEO, purchased the company in October 2022 for $44billion. He has expressed interest in making Twitter a stronger tool for financial service. Musk has explained his vision as something closer to what services like China’s WeChat do, involving the ability to easily buy movie tickets or pay for just about anything through the social media app.
With the new service, Twitter users will be able to click a button that says, “view on eToro,” according to CNBC, “which takes you through to eToro’s site, and then buy and sell assets on its platform.”
“Financial content on social media has provided education to many who have felt excluded by more traditional channels. Twitter has become a crucial part of the retail investing community—it’s where millions of ordinary investors go every day to access financial news, share knowledge and converse,” Yoni ASSIA, co-founder and CEO of eToro said it in a published press release.
“As the social investing network, eToro was built on these very principles—community, knowledge-sharing and better access to financial markets. There is power in shared knowledge and by transforming investing into a group endeavour, we can yield better results and become more successful, together,” Assia continued.
Twitter has experienced a tumultuous six months under Musk’s leadership, with large advertisers first abandoning the platform when the billionaire took over. But Musk insists “most” of the large brands are back, even though representatives from big companies have been reluctant to appear with him.
Musk was scheduled to address a Miami marketing conference on April 18th. However, Semafor leaked emails reveal that executives at major brands fear appearing close to Musk because of his controversial remarks. Recently, Musk stood by Scott Adams following the removal of Dilbert’s cartoonist from every American newspaper due to racist comments. And Musk has made some bizarre choices in recent weeks, like painting over the “W” in the sign at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, apparently an attempt at a joke about breasts.
Twitter replied to emails on Thursday by sending a “poop emoji” (an automated reply set up for CEO Elon Musk). I’ll update this article if Twitter ever responds with anything of substance.
