The Next Web reports Square has hired a new CFO and topped $6 Billion in payments annually:

Friar will become Square’s first chief financial officer as the company continues to expand quickly: in the past year, it has grown from 80 employees to over 300.

Founded in 2009, Square now processes over $6 billion in payments on an annualized basis, enabling over 1 million individuals and businesses to accept credit cards with its solution, the company asserts.

Its hard to even say anything smart (or witty) about that kind of growth.  I’ve been a user of Square since it was in beta, and it really is close to a perfect service.  $6 billion is going to seem awful small compared to what they will be processing a few years from now.  

Kinda scary that Twitter may be the second most revolutionary product to come from Jack Dorsey’s brain, eh?

Source: thenextweb.com

Twitter announced new functionality and partnerships within expanded tweets:

You’ve probably expanded Tweets before to play videos from YouTube or see photos from Instagram. Now, a diverse and growing group of new partners like the The Wall Street Journal, Breaking News, and TIME also deliver rich content inside Tweets containing a link to those websites.

Feels like another move toward monetization (and probably a far better choice then promoted tweets).  Rolls out the website today, and coming to mobile apps soon (that’s gotta be a scaling choice, right?).

Source: blog.twitter.com

via TechCrunch:

Google got the chance to buy Twitter, but the search giant passed, says Michael Arrington. “Google hasn’t been interested in buying Twitter since they committed themselves to Google+” says Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures founder and former Twitter board member, in his fireside chat this morning with Arrington at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York conference. Now Google+ is widely seen as a ghost town, and not buying Twitter could be a mistake that haunts Mountain View for years to come.

Dodged a major bullet there.  

Twitter users, not Google.  Google fucked up.

Source: TechCrunch

NFL to Allow Twitter during Pro Bowl

via ESPN

Tweeting is voluntary and only one player per team may tweet at a time.

Mobile devices will not be allowed during the game. The players can, however, tweet from their phones before the game and at halftime. Facebook and other popular social media platforms are not included.

“This is an innovative way to further engage our fans who have an insatiable appetite for football,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “NFL players have been very active on social media and enjoying talking to fans. The nature of the Pro Bowl enables us to have players tweet during the game.”

Its a nice start, but what do you want to bet those tweets will have to be approved by a league designated official before they go out?  Let the players use devices and send pictures and videos during the game.  That might make things interesting.  Besides, no one actually watches the Pro Bowl on TV, what makes the league think they will follow it on Twitter?

Nice stiff arm to Facebook though. 

Source: ESPN