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By Caroline McCarthy
news.cnet.com
April 12, 2010
You're going to be seeing search ads on Twitter after all.
Adding to the whirlwind of announcements leading up to the company's first annual
developer conference, several news outlets have posted interviews with Twitter
executives to unveil something called "Sponsored Tweets," a search ad program that
will put brands' messages into users' Twitter streams. It's formally slated to debut
on Tuesday.
Early advertisers in the program include Starbucks, Virgin America, and Bravo, all
of which have already been using Twitter's reach to promote their brands. With
"Sponsored Tweets" that organically-built promotion is becoming official much as
Twitter eventually built its own version of fan-created "replies" and "retweets":
First, these ads are going to show up if users search for a keyword that the
advertiser has purchased. Eventually, they'll show up in users' Twitter streams both
on the company homepage and third-party client applications; no more than one ad
will be displayed at a time.
Twitter's business model has been talked about nearly as much as the company itself
since its hyped 2007 debut: $160 of venture capital has been pumped into the
company, and yet its executives repeatedly refused to rush to make a business plan
public. It's a decision that some said was wise and others said was short-sighted.
It's obvious that the company considered many different ways of making money, and
finally launching search ads--the basis for Google's phenomenal financial
success--may be a concession of sorts. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said less than a
year ago at a conference that "we're not pursuing advertising" because "it's just
not quite as interesting to us." And in a media interview, CEO Evan Williams said
last year that the company would be launching paid accounts for businesses, geared
toward managing marketing and analytics, before 2009's end. That didn't happen.
Twitter was rumored to be launching an ad platform last month at the South by
Southwest Interactive Festival, where Williams was keynoting. But Williams' big
announcement was @Anywhere, a publisher partner program that appears to stem from
the same philosophy as Facebook Connect, and which has yet to make a real launch.
Twitter's appeal to advertisers comes at a time when some of the third-party
developers who've been building products with the service for the past few years say
they feel jilted: Twitter has commissioned a BlackBerry app and acquired iPhone app
Tweetie, leading some third-party companies to complain that its once-open platform
is becoming rigid and preferential.
The company's Chirp developer conference, which kicks off Wednesday, will
undoubtedly have to address this invariable shift from a coder-friendly but
unprofitable product into a legitimate communication business.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20002322-36.html
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