In this photo illustration, the Twitter profile of Elon Musk with more than 80 million followers in ... [+]
Twitter will let users of the social media platform trade stock and cryptocurrency through a partnership with online brokerage eToro, according to a new report from CNBC. The feature is supposed to be rolling out today, though it’s not available at the time of this writing.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who purchased the company for $44 billion back in October 2022, has previously expressed an interest in making the social media platform a more robust tool for financial services. 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, CEO and co-founder of eToro, said in a press release published online.
“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 is scheduled to speak at a marketing conference in Miami on April 18, but leaked emails obtained by Semafor reveal some executives from major brands are worried about appearing near Musk over his controversial statements. Musk recently defended Scott Adams after Dilbert cartoonist was dropped by every newspaper in the U.S. following racist statements. 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 responded to emailed questions on Thursday with a poop emoji, an automated response set up by CEO Elon Musk. I’ll update this article if Twitter ever responds with anything of substance.
