Twitter Moves Closer to Advertising

For Twitter, advertising is the proverbial bull in the china shop. For a company desperately seeking a business model, advertising is a no-brainer but, to date, Twitter has refrained from going for it.

Now, it appears Twitter is moving closer to embracing advertising with the launch of a new terms of service that specifically mentions advertising, which, by the way, is a vehicle that many other online services are using to apparently make money.

In the updated TOS, Twitter says:

“The Services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the Content or information on the Services, queries made through the Services, or other information. The types and extent of advertising by Twitter on the Services are subject to change. In consideration for Twitter granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Twitter and its third party providers and partners may place such advertising on the Services or in connection with the display of Content or information from the Services whether submitted by you or others.”

Translation: Twitter likes the idea of contextual relevant advertising based on content with tweets or search results.

To me, Twitter has no choice but to go for advertising. It can talk about corporate services and data analytics but analytics is low-hanging fruit. While Twitter holds it nose at the thought of advertising, many other companies are making money by using Twitter’s API to create services that make money from – you got it – advertising.

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on Mark Evans Tech about the idea that hundreds of Twitter-focused companies could make revenue, while Twitter could be left making nothing.

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