London: Twitter users will see ads on the
site for the first time, as the microblogging service unveils
its long-awaited plan to transform itself into a profitable
business, says a media report.
The four-year-old company would on Tuesday announce a new
service called `Promoted Tweets`, which would allow businesses
to buy keywords, The Times reported.
"Tweets" written by the company would then appear at the
top of the page when a user has searched for that word, much
like on Google, it added.
Further, the report said that the adverts, which would
be limited to 140 characters like all messages on the site,
would only show up in search results.
This means users who do not search for something would
not see them in their regular Twitter streams. Over time, they
may appear in the stream of posts users see when they log on.
According to the publication, Twitter would reveal the
first adverts to around 10 percent of users. They would
include "tweets" from companies such as Starbucks, Virgin
America and Best Buy, the electronics retailer.
Although Twitter was recently valued at USD 1 billion
and has around 45 million regular users, it made almost no
revenue until it began selling real-time search results to
Google in December.
PTI
