Twitter has joined hands with Indian startup firm Lookup to expand the company’s scope beyond its app platform. The partnership will allow users to tweet or direct message the company’s handle @lookuplite in order to connect them to local businesses and conduct transactions online.
For instance, a person could send a missive asking Lookup’s Twitter account to book a reservation at a restaurant, pay a bill, pick up food or groceries, enquire about a dress, do laundry, and even buy medicines. The platform offers free home delivery as of now and there is no minimum charge to use its services.
Lookup makes use of Twitter APIs and listening tools to connect a customer to a local merchant. The social networking site claims this extends the reach of the latter to a considerable extent. The new offering is currently open for business in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.
Lookup had launched its services in December last year with an Android and iOS app. In a blog post, Lookup claimed it had received over 1.7 million requests and 22 million messages since it began its operations. It further asserts it has nearly 1.2 million users in total, out of which 850000 are Android consumers.
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People can search for a specific shop within the application to directly interact with a shopkeeper. Local business owners have to join the platform and get verified in order to make this happen. So far, over 80000 have partnered with Lookup, facilitating roughly 21 million message exchanges.
While the app comes with in-built payment options, Twitter interactions will be limited to booking a service. All charges are to be paid offline. You can download the Lookup app via the Google Play Store or iTunes.