News from the Wire

Chirpify launches Twitter Commerce payment platform

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 — 12:14:23 (EST)

Portland, Ore., Feb. 15, 2012 -- Chirpify, the easy way to exchange money via Twitter, today announced the launch of its Twitter Commerce platform, allowing brands and merchants to buy, sell, donate and transact on Twitter. Formerly known as Sell Simply, Chirpify enables direct, or person-to-person, payments and donations in addition to its retail sales platform.

For the first time ever, brands and retailers are able to use Twitter as a direct sales channel. By offering organizations a simple way to turn Tweets into transactions, Chirpify opens up a meaningful new channel that combines social marketing with commerce and offers an easy way for consumers to make purchases.

"Brands, retailers, politicians, celebrities and individuals have spent the past six years using Twitter to build communities and brand affinity, so why not allow them to sell on Twitter directly?" says Chris Teso, founder of Chirpify. "Customers don't have to leave Twitter to make a purchase or donation. Chirpify removes the frictions of traditional e-commerce check-out processes."

How it works:

Chirpify integrates directly with PayPal to offer secure transactions on Twitter. Purchases and donations are as simple as replying to a Tweet: "@favoritebrand Buy," or "@politician Donate," for example.

Additionally, Chirpify offers deep integration with existing e-commerce storefronts, including Magento, for back-end fulfillment, listing and transaction management. To use Chirpify, merchants simply click the "list on Twitter" button when drafting an item listing for sale in their e-commerce dashboard. Inbound sales information appears as either an email or as part of the retailer's back-end system, as well as via a DM on Twitter.

Because it works anywhere Twitter does, Chirpify is device agnostic, allowing any user on any mobile device, tablet or desktop computer to access Chirpify for seamless transactions.

"We identified Chirpify as solving a huge problem in the market: how to monetize social-media efforts," says Greg Rau, founder and CEO at Upstart Labs. "Chris built an effective and elegant platform to deliver actual ROI based on revenue. Chirpify offers individuals, companies, organizations -- anyone -- the ability to monetize their Tweets."

Chirpify received seed funding from Portland-based incubator Upstart Labs, which invests in early-stage companies with a combination of capital and product-development support. Chirpify is one of the first ventures to receive seed funding from Upstart Labs, which launched its program last year.

About Chirpify

Chirpify (www.chirpify.com ) is a seamless payment system for Twitter commerce. With full integration to PayPal, Chirpify enables businesses to buy, sell, donate and exchange funds on Twitter, turning Tweets into immediate transactions. Based in Portland, Oregon, the Chirpify platform is the first social commerce system to offer direct monetization through Twitter. To learn more about Chirpify and begin sending or receiving payments today, visit www.chirpify.com .

About Upstart Labs

Portland, OR-based startup accelerator Upstart Labs (www.upstartlabs.com ) invests in early-stage technology companies with a combination of capital and product-development support. Upstart Labs focuses on developing new businesses, and providing emerging companies with support in design, development and go-to-market strategy.

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Source: Company press release.