Calling Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s newly announced money transfer system “ridiculous,” CNBC contributor and Daily Mail North America CEO Jon Steinberg said in a Squawk Alley discussion that no one will use this nascent technology in France.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) recently announced with the bank Groupe BPCE a new system that will allow people in France to send someone, be they customers of the bank or not, money via a tweet.
“This is ridiculous. We don’t have enough people logging in to register for Twitter. Now we’re going to have people paying by tweets? Six people a day will do that,” Steinberg said.
Groupe BPCE is the second largest bank in France and the system is understood to be built around the company’s S-Money division’s mobile payment system that makes use of text messaging and security standards usually employed by the credit card industry.
According to Steinberg, the new system is the “most obscure” use for a tweet. CNBC On-Air Editor Jon Fortt also questioned whether this new system will ever be secure.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s new money transfer system is just one of the newly-announced financial services plays of technology giants. It can be remembered that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced the Apple Pay system last month when it unveiled the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also just unveiled a new money transfer system with Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. in India.
EBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) with its PayPal, Inc. unit is also noted by Steinberg to be very interested in a peer-to-peer money transfer system. PayPal, Inc. will be spun off by eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) next year.
Meanwhile, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s new system is too early, Fortt said. He added that Groupe BPCE is not even working too close to the social network for this new system but only wants to use the social networking platform. He agreed with Steinberg that only a few people will be using this new system to pay.
Shareholders in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) includes Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management which reported 5 million shares in the company by the end of the second quarter of this year.
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