Twitter buys mobile payment infrastructure CardSpring

Late Wednesday night, Twitter announced it acquired mobile payment system CardSpring. Twitter’s advertising team says CardSpring will fit nicely into the company’s framework for recommending products and services, and for making purchases through tweets.

CardSpring is known for it Application Programming Interface (API) that lets developers make online applications for credit, credit, and other types of financial transactions — think loyalty cards. In 2012 the company landed $10 million in funding, lead by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.

“At Twitter, we will continue to grow the adoption of our platform and work with our publisher, financial, and retail partners to create new, innovative commerce experiences for consumers,” says the company in a blog post.

Adding a mobile payments infrastructure to Twitter will help the company’s initial efforts to bring actual commerce to the app. Already Starbucks has developed a “tweet-a-coffee” function whereby connecting your Twitter and Starbucks accounts you can virtually tweet a cup of coffee to a friend and they will receive a $5 e-gift card. With a system for credit card entry, you may soon be able to tweet all sorts of products to your friends — and maybe even straight cash.

The acquisition falls in line with the general trend of “frictionless” payments on the web. Earlier today we noted that Facebook is flirting with a “buy-button,” so you won’t need to leave the site to make a purchase.