Los Angeles — In a bid to ramp up the monetization of the popular micro-blogging site, Twitter’s mobile platform is about to look a lot more like its Web site. Now people who access the service via Twitter’s iPhone and Android apps, will soon start seeing adverts, from the likes of big brands such as Starbucks, appear in their timelines.
However, Promoted Trends and Tweets have been on Twitter’s mobile search for sometime now, Twitter on Tuesday announced an expansion of its mobile advertising, putting promoted tweets into the timelines of users accessing the service from mobile applications.
Popular technology site WebProNews noted “And in the coming weeks, we will begin rolling out Promoted Tweets in the timeline on these mobile apps,” the company says in a blog post. “Initially, a small number of users may see Promoted Tweets near the top of their timelines from brands they already follow. This will help make sure that people see important Tweets from the brands they care about.”
For a social network like Twitter that boast a business model based almost entirely on advertising, the rapidly growing mobile space is a critical spot for the company to target. The micro-blogging site said that the promoted tweets will be displayed in the timeline alongside all the other tweets the user sees. Sponsored tweets will also appear in the search and “Who to Follow” recommendations. Twitter emphasized that the advertisements would be relevant to each individual user.
“They need to be monetizing every user, whether they are accessing the site from a mobile device or a computer,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, said in a statement. “It is critical because without the money from ads they can not expand their services.”
Twitter explained that the experience will be identical on mobile as it is on Twitter.com. “As with Promoted Tweets in search, we will only display Promoted Tweets in the timeline when they are relevant. If you see a Promoted Tweet that is not relevant to you, you can easily dismiss it from your timeline with a single swipe.”
Prior to today’s announcement, Twitter first unveiled promoted tweets in April 2010. At the time of launch, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, summarized them as “ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users”.
As more and more users begin to flock social media from smartphones, giants like Twitter and Facebook are clamoring for a share of that ad revenue. Facebook is working on a new mobile ad plan as well, according to a Wednesday report from the Associated Press.
“Internet advertising is a billion-dollar market, but it is not everything, and Twitter is certainly going to have to figure out a way to get revenue from mobile devices, as well,” Justin Barr, COO of Tapit Mobile Advertising, stated to the E-Commerce Times.
A Twitter spokesman, writing on the company blog, added: “We have had a simple philosophy since we initially launched ads on Twitter, and it is this: We strive to create products that put users first, and continue to enrich your Twitter experience. Today’s news represents another important step in our advertising efforts, and we hope you like it.”
In fact, more than half of its 100 million active users access Twitter via their mobile. Besides, promoted tweets will not appear in users’ timelines if they are accessing Twitter via a third party mobile app, such as TweetBox.