Twitter ‘on verge’ of deal with payments firm Stripe

Could Twitter be about to do a deal to allow consumers to buy items through the service?

According to reports on Recode and the Wall Street Journal, a deal with payments provider Stripe to do just that may be close to completion.

Citing unnamed sources, the reports claim the move would be the first since Twitter appointed former Ticketmaster chief Nathan Hubbard in as its head of commerce last August.

It is not yet clear how the proposed service would work. Both Twitter and San Francisco based Stripe, which was founded by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, are keeping quiet about the potential deal for now.

However, if it becomes a reality, the new service could offer Twitter another revenue stream outside of its current advertising model. Twitter offers “promoted tweets” for a fee to help users reach a wider audience. It has also dipped its toe in ecommerce, but has yet to make serious move in this area.