Ads Spotted on Twitter.com - Did You Notice?
Three months ago we reported that Ads Had Come to Twitter and it was a pretty big deal - until Twitter promptly said the word "sponsored" was only appearing on the site in error. Now the "sponsored definitions" of certain Twitter "concepts" have appeared on the site again - and they sure look legit this time.
These first ads probably aren't going to bring in enough cash to fuel a micro-app acquisition spree by Twitter, but this is the first clear public indication of one way the company is bringing in revenue. It's funny - the ads have been live for about a week now and no one but a few small, alert blogs has written about them. (Seth Simonds in particular caught a really interesting international angle on the story.) It was big news three months ago and we believe it's still important.
So far the only two sponsored links we've seen cycle through our sidebars have been to the ad network Federated Media's Microsoft microsite ExecTweets.com (aggregating Twitter messages from corporate executives) and Universal Studios' CinemaTweets.com, promoting the allegedly offensive forthcoming gay-face movie Bruno. The ads only appear on the home page of Twitter when a user is logged in, not when looking at another user's profile page. Also included in the cycle is a link to a joint Twitter and Threadless.com microsite where visitors can buy Threadless t-shirts about Twitter. Apparently that doesn't constitute a sponsored link, but presumably money is changing hands somewhere. The whole world of Twitter is a green-field when it comes to rules of disclosure.
Perhaps these sources of revenue will help Twitter remain a viable company long enough for all kinds of questions about this brand new medium to be explored.
Dave Winer argued this Spring that people want to know how Twitter is going to make money because they might not like it. He told a story about learning while in college that Domino's Pizza used profits to fight Planned Parenthood. With all the time, energy and content people are investing in Twitter - many want to know how the company will monetize so they can decide whether it's an organization they want to continue investing in.
And so it has begun. There are ads on Twitter. What do you think?
Disclosure: Federated Media is also the ad network for ReadWriteWeb.
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Doug Coleman, Jolie O'Dell, Dana Oshiro , Lidija Davis and Steven Walling.
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Twitter is ripe for monetisation. Six months ago I had not even heard of it but now it is all over mainstream news and entertainment channels.
Certainly the biggest networking tool around right now.
Not really, Mr.PS3, Facebook is much, much bigger. Ripe for monetization none the less though.
I think it's unreasonable to not expect free communication frameworks such as Twitter trying to capitalize on their popularity by integrating ads. Why would we ask of Twitter, or any other free platform, to remain an ad-free sanctuary? Unless I'm mistaking, all startups what to make a buck at the end of the day.
Oliver, agreed - this is good news.
I clicked on Exec tweets (twice) and got a re-direct to a generic apple site... a sub-let??
Didn't notice, since I use a third-party client, which, I paid for, to remove ads. Annnnd Twitter saw how much of that revenue? Heh. Exactly.
We had a new twitter account recently created for one of our clients and as the account got created we were following Shoprite. We were like...ummmm...we didn't follow them. We believe it's a way for them to advertise. Anyone else with similar results.
We can't expect to get all this for free in the long run. I think its a good deal for the users not to have to pay for it. If the Twitter guys are smart they will handle the ads like Google is doing it. So, they will keep all current users.
It was time, you know? I was hoping they would stick to sponsored search results in the real-time stream, but this was coming.
And you raise a great question Marshall. We're not sure what they will use the profits for (they're relatively private), but I don't have the evil aspirations vibe with Twitter that I have with Facebook.
Those ads have been there for a few months. They've been advertising everything from Tweetie to ExecTweets.
Posted by: David Chartier
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July 3, 2009 6:06 PM
I guess the ads are sure to come.
Lol even I had spotted this and written about it http://techie-buzz.com/enhancements/twitter-redesigns-adds-features-and-ads.html
Wonder whether we will soon be seeing real advertisement in twitter soon.
Well, I feel vindicated because when I wrote my observations into my blog, I was wondering why I hadn't noticed the "sponsored definition" before -- although I had seen Exec Tweets and Cinema Tweets cycle through before but hadn't noticed the "sponsored definition" before. All of my friends had mentioned that this was yesterday's news but thanks for calling my Because the Medium is the Message blog "a few small, alert blogs." Cheers and I am much obliged!
The Ads are not Contextual at the moment .I would like to see Ads based on my Updates .May be this will happen once they have enough Advertisers .Twitter must be working towords it .I spotted only 4 Ads and they are repeating.
http://bit.ly/cl2L0
It's about time Twitter came up with a revenue model- even if it's an outdated one and probably isn't going to keep the site afloat.
When it comes to monetising microblogging, I think the Laconica folks who run http://identi.ca have the right idea. Free service to the masses, and hosted services at Status.net to support corporate, for-profit microblogs. Best part- it keeps the system ad free. And since the whole thing is open source, and can aggregate across instances, it's a lot more robust.
Twitter keeps refusing to implement the OpenMicroblogging spec, and that basically keeps them a silo, and that likely dooms them, in the long run.
This has been there for more than a month
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouriel/3578893289/
served by social media if i am not wrong
Ouriel, that's really interesting! I certainly never saw that screen, I wonder if it was served up only to people in your part of the world? See link above, Japanese users saw graphical ads. I think they did international testing of various things before quietly starting to display these ads to US users a few weeks ago. Not sure, all I know is that 3 months ago they appeared and Twitter said "it's a mistake!" but now they are back.
They have definitely been serving these ads for at least a month.
Frank, count yourself in the "I noticed" category then. If you had blogged about it a month ago, I would link to your post in this one.
Yeah, I've been seeing ads since at least early May (that's how I found out about tipjoy: http://twitter.com/tiegz/status/1712213925)... I'm in NYC though, so maybe it was some sort of A/B testing round.
tieg - I don't know that tipjoy was a sponsored definition, if you look at the links now and refresh the page - you'll see that some are and some are not. Several months ago all were marked as sponsored but Twitter said that was a mistake. See first link in this post
These "ads" have been there for a long time now, and they don't seem to bother me at all... so I guess I'm fine with them, the way they are right now.
I want to buy one. Twibes
I was not able to notice those ads on Twitter.
I noticed them as - http://www.twitterrati.com/2009/07/02/a-revenue-source-for-twitter/.
One of the ads is for Trazzler, a travel start-up in which Twitter co-founders Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey are advisors.
Hmm, Expect the unexpected? of course not.. sure there's still more to come.
I think Twitter, and people working any online web property, deserves to have the opportunity to make money from their endeavours in whatever ways and means are available to them, and fit their audience, market segment, ethics & values. Were this not such a high profile business, yes - it could mean porn-ads, but this is not the case. Twitter focuses more upon the business and social application side and if they're able to earn residuals from third-party apps using Twitter, I believe it is only right, and frankly, none of our business. How you doing monetizing your site?
I don't mind these sponsored ads since they are unobstrusive and Twitter-related. If ads for American Apparel, I'd get off the web interface permanently.
Liz, why would American Apparel ads drive you from the web interface but Bruno ads don't?
You mark my words. Some day they'll find a way to make tweets animated and with graphics. THEN you'll see advertising!
I've been reading that Twitter has been under great pressure to bring up revenues. I wonder where these companies gain such value when they don't even make a profit. Is is simply because they have access to so many users?
I just hate American Apparel ads because the girls usually look underage and are in various stages of undress. And they are filmed so you're acting as a voyeur. The only Bruno ads I've seen have him in lederhosen which is quite different than bikini bottoms. Plus, I think Cohen probably designs his promotional campaign while the models are posed. They have less agency,IMO.
Times are tough dude, gotta grab whatever you can!
RTRT
www.anonymize.tk
Not real sure how effective that will be. Personally, I've never noticed anything on that side of the screen except for the part where it shows how many followers I have or how many I'm following.
All I know is, we've been trying to contact Twitter to buy a Sponsored Definition, as we believe our politicoTracker Twitter Edition iPhone app would be of interest to twitterers. The app is like ExecTweets in concept, except for politicians.
http://politicoTracker.com/te
So far all our emails have gone unanswered. We think the Sponsored Definitions concept is brilliant, but it won't work very well if they don't respond to potential advertisers. I guess they're taking their time testing the system.
The end part about Dominos and knowing what the company stands for is very important.
have not seens any ads yet ...
hmm ... weird ... ;)
Really, what does it matter if Twitter places ads on their pages? We have ads on MySpace and Facebook as well. It is to be expected and I am honestly surprised that they have not done so sooner.
I see nothing wrong with a company that provides massive value putting ads up on its pages.
Twitter is not a charity organization... The company has to bear server costs, manpower costs, infrastructural costs etc and there must be some way to get some much needed revenue to at least offset those costs... if they make a profit, all the better!
Marshall, at #140tc someone from Twitter said that 90% of the API calls did not come from Twiter.com. We don't know what percentage of those are third party clients (TweetDeck, Tweetie, etc) versus third-party services.
Based on anecdotes, however, I think web site ads would target the more casual Twitter user, not the "hard core" 5-10% who are accessing via phone and third party clients. But there are more of the former (casual), and I can't imagine them minding, especially if the ads remain this innocuous.
Most of us realize that start ups have to figure out how to make money or they will simply go away. I just sent Andru Edwards a tweet explaining why I have a FlickrPro account, for example.
Ads are going to be a part or Twitter, whether they like them or not. We've shown ads on Twitter for a while. It's a matter of adding value, rather then becoming a detrament to the community.
Twitter has gone strength to strength in recent months. I remember first reading about it and disregarding it as useless at the time, i feel rather stupid now as i have seen its rapid growth ripping through main stream media channels
Ads Spotted on Twitter.com - Did You Notice? http://bit.ly/Ela6H [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/2461007870]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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July 16, 2009 9:52 AM
It's a matter of time Twitter to be replaced by something else.
I think you should have a place where people can sell respectable stuff. And, a place where people can swap stuff. " such as sead beads for jewlery! I try to put a donations sign beside my stuf, the I buy calling cards for the guys and women fighting for us to call home on the holidays.
I think you should have a place where people can sell respectable stuff. And, a place where people can swap stuff. " such as sead beads for jewlery! I try to put a donations sign beside my stuf, the I buy calling cards for the guys and women fighting for us to call home on the holidays.
Twitter has gone strength to strength in recent months. I remember first reading about it and disregarding it as useless at the time, i feel rather stupid now as i have seen its rapid growth ripping through main stream media channels
Ads are going to be a part or Twitter, whether they like them or not. We've shown ads on Twitter for a while. It's a matter of adding value, rather then becoming a detrament to the community...
It is valuable place to show off adds. There are over 30 million people visiting twitter every month. Everyone do it, why not twitter. I wish them Good Luck.
Well, cant say I blame them, nearly every other site is going it :D
Wish you luck Twitter
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