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Twitter unveils ad-funded business model

Promoted Tweets will let advertisers access Twitter's many users for the first time.

By Nicole Kobie, 13 Apr 2010 at 08:36

Twitter has unveiled the first few details of its new advertising model, called "Promoted Tweets."

Such paid-for tweets will crop up at the top of searches on the site, and will be marked as advertising, the micro blogging site has confirmed.

"Promoted Tweets are ordinary tweets that businesses and organisations want to highlight to a wider group of users," explained co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post, adding that there will be a limit of one Promoted Tweet per search page and that it will have all the functions, such as retweet, as a normal message.

The initial trial phase of the system will be limited to the site itself and, if successful, will be followed by a roll-out to third-party clients. The Promoted Tweets will also be integrated into timelines "in a way that is useful to you".

"We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you," Stone said. "We’ll attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don’t resonate."

Indeed, the system may spark protest from some users used to the site being ad-free. Stone said the best part about the system is that all the ads are actually tweets.

"Since all Promoted Tweets are organic tweets, there is not a single 'ad' in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn’t already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising," he added.

Companies including Best Buy, Sony and Virgin have already signed up for the service.

Watchers of the site have long waited for its founders to announce an advertising system of some kind, as many noted Twitter had no clear business model despite its popularity.

"Stubborn insistence on a slow and thoughtful approach to monetisation—one which puts users first, amplifies existing value, and generates profit has frustrated some Twitter watchers," Stone wrote.