Twitter has announced that it will sell advertising in an attempt to make a profit, after being reluctant to do so in the past.
The social networking site said advertisers would be able to buy “Promoted Tweets” that will appear on Twitter’s search results pages. Only one Promoted Tweet would appear in each search results page.
Twitter founder Biz Stone has said the new model would not feature traditional adverts and would contain tweets that would “resonate with users” and be part of conversations.
Stone added that if Twitter users not interact with Promoted Tweets by replying to them, retweeting them or favouriting them they “would disappear”.
Twitter has already signed household names such as Sony Pictures, Starbucks and US retailer Best Buy.
It describes the Promoted Tweets as “ordinary Tweets that businesses and organisations want to highlight to a wider group of users”.
Twitter said the second phase of its advertising plan would allow Promoted Tweets to appear in users’ stream of posts, not just the search results pages.
