Twitter opens doors to ads

 

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 11 Sep 2009 at 09:23

Twitter has revised its Terms and Conditions to specify that it may run ads, as the service investigates ways of making money from its 45 million users.

"Now that we know more about how Twitter is being used, we've made changes to our Terms of Service—these are the basic rules that go along with using Twitter," says founder Biz Stone on Twitter's official blog.

"With these revisions, we expect some discussion so here are a few highlights from the updated page. Advertising — we leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open as we've said before."

That's not all Stone said before. Back in February he admitted the company was treading warily around ads: "There is a pretty obvious opportunity there... But how would they [users] respond to us putting ads on the site? Are we going to end up p***ing them off?"

How would they respond to us putting ads on the site? Are we going to end up p***ing them off?

This may account for why Twitter has kept the advertising clause open-ended, and stressed it is subject to change.

"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 terms read. "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...."

Analysts are skeptical 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.