Twitter to Block Paid "Tweets" from 3rd Parties

By: Caroline McCarthy
Topics: Tech Talk

(Credit: Twitter)

Third-party ad networks have been officially banned from Twitter, according to a post on the Twitter blog on Monday from Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo. It's a move that could drive some of the advertising start-ups that have built around Twitter out of business.

"We will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API," the post read, explaining that the exception will be Twitter's own "promoted tweets" program that it announced earlier this year.

"Third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created," Costolo's post read."They may optimize for either market share or short-term revenue at the expense of the long-term health of the Twitter platform. For example, a third party ad network may seek to maximize ad impressions and click through rates even if it leads to a net decrease in Twitter use due to user dissatisfaction."

But the straight story is that these third-party networks--include Adly and the just-launched TweetUp--now compete with Twitter itself for advertising dollars.

As Twitter has moved from open-ended communication platform (and investment dollar black hole) to structured company with a nascent business model, many of the third-party companies that built businesses (in some cases, profitable ones) on top of its API have felt the heat. Prior to its unveiling of the Promoted Tweets advertising program, Twitter announced that it had acquired iPhone client Tweetie and would launch other official mobile clients as well Twitter confirmed to CNET that this does not have any bearing on marketers working directly with prominent Twitter users to post paid tweets--reality show star Kim Kardashian reportedly has a rate of $10,000 per sponsored tweet.

Read the rest of this article at CNET News.com.

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
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