SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Twitter is courting big time advertisers and will soon allow them to tailor, automate and publish ads in bulk directly onto the Internet micro blogging service, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.The company will soon provide a so-called application programming interface, or API, that will help advertising agencies and corporations deliver large volumes of ads on Twitter. Access to the API, which Twitter plans to begin in the fourth quarter, will initially be rolled out as a test involving a limited number of partners, the people said.
The move could provide a boost to Twitter's fledgling advertising business by opening the door to large online marketing agencies that rely on specialized software tools to deliver a blizzard of ever-changing ads on popular websites like Google and Facebook."It would increase the opportunity for advertisers to participate in that marketplace. Right now you've got to talk to a salesperson" to run an ad on Twitter, said one of the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because details of the new service are confidential.The move could also pose a risk to Twitter for consumer backlash if it results in a barrage of ads to users of the service, particularly if the promotions are of the less-exhaled variety like ads for teeth-whitening and weight-loss products. So far, Twitter has taken a go-slow approach to advertising for fear of annoying users with intrusive promotions.The five-year-old company is taking steps to ramp up its revenue at a time when its valuation is surging and anticipation mounts that it could follow in the footsteps of LinkedIn and Group on by floating shares in an initial public offering.According to a recent report in the New York Times, Twitter is seeking to raise $400 million in funding at an $8 billion valuation.Many details have yet to be hammered out, but the sources say that Twitter's advertising API will initially let advertisers automatically deliver ads for two ad formats on its website: Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, according to another one of the sources.Promoted Tweets allow an advertiser to effectively sponsor any of the 140-character text messages that users send on Twitter, while Promoted Accounts let an advertiser promote its Twitter account to users of the service.While Twitter is among the most popular Internet social networking companies with more than 200 million registered accounts, its advertising efforts have lagged those of larger rival Facebook, which is expected to generate $4 billion in ad revenue this year.
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