Twitter allows adverts
15 September 09

Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site has changed its terms for users to allow advertisers to reach its more than 45 million monthly visitors.

Twitter, the two-year-old venture capital-backed company that lets people send an unlimited number of 140-character messages, is just now beginning to ramp up efforts to monetise, or gain revenue from, its popular site. It has now revised its "terms of service" to specify that it may run ads. Advertising revenue is the time-honored way for websites to generate revenue while remaining free for consumers. Explosive growth in social networking is attracting interest: worldwide unique visitors to Twitter's site reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-on-year, according to ComScore.

Some analysts are sceptical that advertising will catch on in a meaningful way on social networks, arguing that companies are reluctant to juxtapose their brands with unpredictable, and potentially offensive, user-generated content. But some analysts point out that users of social networking websites tend to spend a lot of time on these sites, providing an attractive platform for advertisers to promote their brands - especially if preferences are tracked. Twitter kept its new clause on advertising open-ended, and stressed it was subject to change. (c) Reuters