For far too long, Twitter ignored the financial benefits of advertising. Instead, it burned through a lot of management cycles and venture capital exploring a variety of business models such as premium services for businesses, and analytics.
Finally, Twitter relented on advertising with the introduction of Promoted Tweets, which are relevant and contextual ads inserted into a user's live stream.
Unfortunately, Twitter has announced today that what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander when it comes to advertising. In a blog post, Twitter said it will "not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API".
Twitter said the ad ban is happening because "third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created".
While Twitter may have some solid and legitimate reasons for the new policy, it will dramatically change and destroy the business models of many companies that have been using the Twitter API.
At first blush, Twitter's move appears to be overly drastic and draconian. In many respects, Twitter is suggesting that if anyone is going to take advantage of Twitt-vertising, it will be Twitter and only Twitter.
For everyone that hopes to play in a market with huge potential, Twitter is saying "Tough". There is little doubt this new policy will create a huge fuss within the online community. Do not be surprised to see Twitter retreat soon.
Twitter: No Ads for You
For far too long, Twitter ignored the financial benefits of advertising. Instead, it burned through a lot of management cycles and venture capital exploring a variety of business models such as premium services for businesses, and analytics.
Finally, Twitter relented on advertising with the introduction of Promoted Tweets, which are relevant and contextual ads inserted into a user's live stream.
Unfortunately, Twitter has announced today that what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander when it comes to advertising. In a blog post, Twitter said it will "not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API".
Twitter said the ad ban is happening because "third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created".
While Twitter may have some solid and legitimate reasons for the new policy, it will dramatically change and destroy the business models of many companies that have been using the Twitter API.
At first blush, Twitter's move appears to be overly drastic and draconian. In many respects, Twitter is suggesting that if anyone is going to take advantage of Twitt-vertising, it will be Twitter and only Twitter.
For everyone that hopes to play in a market with huge potential, Twitter is saying "Tough". There is little doubt this new policy will create a huge fuss within the online community. Do not be surprised to see Twitter retreat soon.
For more details, check out this extensive TechCrunch post.