Seth Fiegerman’s blog “Why Facebook and Twitter are embracing E-commerce”  on Mashable.com highlights the growing importance of E-commerce in the world of social media from the service provider’s point of view. Its amusing to see the business incline the social media giants have to enter the E-commerce world. Facebook had made multiple attempts to enter the e-business arena with the “credits” policy, sending gifts and in-game purchases. Though these attempts didn’t really fetch any significant revenue, Facebook is adamant to embrace e-commerce. Facebook incorporated a BUY button in its interface which makes Facebook users buy products advertised without really leaving the social media site and redirect to the buyer’s homepage.

Facebook’s rival Twitter also purchased CardSpring, an online payment platform the subsequent week after Facebook incorporated the buy button. Both these giants are attempting their luck in e-commerce world where the presence of powerhouse like Amazon, Ebay and Alibaba is dominant. Though reports are that this step has been taken buy both the websites just to make sure that users don’t get bored and stay online for more buy shopping online, it is hard to deny the profit motive behind this.

http://www.soppnox.com/blog/twitter-to-create-a-buy-button-on-its-website-for-online-shopping-ads/

Facebook has 1.55 Billion monthly active users whereas microblogging monster has 307 million monthly active users. If simple math is applied, even if 0.5% of users hit the buy button, the revenue would be gigantic and the both Facebook and Twitter would levy some charges for the same from the retailer.

Facebook’s and Twitter’s constant embracing of e-commerce clearly indicates the prospects of growth in the same and an alert of a hybrid of Social Media and E-commerce is round the corner.

Reference –http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/