Twitter To Block Third-Party Paid Tweets 83
tekgoblin writes "Today Twitter announced on its blog an upcoming change to its Terms of Service. The change will not allow anyone to promote paid tweets through the Twitter API. Twitter had announced previously that it will be releasing a 'Promoted Tweets' platform for advertisers that will be non-intrusive and will always be relevant to the Twitter timeline. This action taken by Twitter could be a hard hit for small publishers that relied on the paid tweets that will be blocked shortly. Depending on how expensive the Twitter Promoted Tweets will be, this will show us whether or not Promoted Tweets will be good for the little guy."
They certainly have the right... (Score:1, Insightful)
... to profit from their self-destruction and not share it with others. The only reason why one might consider this a strange move is that Twitter is the epitome of superficial image cultivation, so it seems natural for its users to see it as an advertising channel.
Twitter wants to charge the advertisers (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course Twitter isn't going to allow advertisers to use their API for free. They will muzzle any attempts to do so in the name of preventing spam, then turn around and charge them for the privilege.
Oh my god! (Score:3, Insightful)
And nothing of value was lost (Score:5, Insightful)
This action taken by Twitter could be a hard hit for small publishers that relied on the paid tweets
If you "rely" on "paid tweets," go fuck yourself and find an actual business model. Seriously.
Re:Twitter wants to charge the advertisers (Score:2, Insightful)
They have to monetize their service somehow. This seems perfectly logical and reasonable to me.
Certainly no disagreement here. I just find it a bit irksome that Twitter is glossing over this move with platitudes about preserving the relevance of their service and fostering "innovation" when it's obvious to anyone that they're just acting to protect their business model.
Re:I don't know why (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know why, either, but that's because I don't really understand it. I even skimmed the parts of the Twitter post, and still don't get it because it uses too much new age business gobbledygook terminology - e.g.,
Could somebody describe the situation in terms that me, a simple software engineer, understands? What constitutes a paid tweet, and how does it function -- are they usually automated, based on subscriber count, etc.? What the fuck is the twitter timeline? I'm assuming by ecosystem, they mean their servers and network connections, but someone correct me if I got my hippie==>legitimate terminology translation wrong.
Re:And nothing of value was lost (Score:5, Insightful)
If your business model is entirely dependant upon another company's service (Twitter, Facebook, Paypal, eBay, etc), then you have no guarantee that your business model will exist tomorrow. Not the best way to run a business.
deja vu all over again (Score:1, Insightful)
in 2000/2001 wise man once say "web company make no money is web company that go bye bye"
What is a "paid Tweet"? (Score:5, Insightful)
So what is a "paid Tweet"?
If Barack Obama tweets about politics, and he is paid to be the President of the USA, is that a "paid tweet"?
Re:I don't know why (Score:4, Insightful)
Some twitter viewing applications slide ads into people's twitter streams. Now that Twitter is introducing an official paid advertising service that slides ads into people's twitter streams, they want control over that revenue stream.
All of the incomprehensible corporate speak is smoke-and-mirrors. Sadly, it will be smoke and mirrors that lots of people will fall for. I've shown junk like this to rather intelligent friends, who then nodded and said "that makes sense." The fact that they actually agreed with it was only slightly less shocking than the fact that they survived the experience without their BS detectors exploding.
Re:I don't know why (Score:2, Insightful)
And anyone uses them?
Re:What is a "paid Tweet"? (Score:1, Insightful)
You're being purposely obtuse, try to actually think of what a reasonable thing could mean. In this case, it's a tweet that you are paying someone to write. Is barack obama being _paid to tweet?_ NO. So it's not a paid tweet.
Re:I don't know why (Score:3, Insightful)
>It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for all advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem. For this reason, aside from Promoted Tweets, we will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API.
In terms that a software engineer can understand, it means that Twitter has hired Dogbert Consulting.
Re:What is a "paid Tweet"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Other 'flavors' of paid Tweets could include:
- A celebrity that hires a publicity company to manage their Twitter feed.
- A company that uses a Twitter feed to announce new products, contests, feedback.
- A famous Twitterer who gets a kickback for mentioning a specific product
- A person who really likes a specific brand of cookie / restaurant / etc
Do they have a plan to separate out that fourth person from the previous three?