Twitter is looking to follow in the footsteps of Facebook and other leading social networks with a number of initiatives designed to monetize their service, reports indicate.
The bite-sized update-sharing service is considering deploying autoplay previews for promoted videos when they appear in a user’s feed, allowing a user to click to play the entire video after the six-second preview concludes if they desire. Twitter executives are reportedly planning on drawing advertisers in by charging only when a user clicks to watch the entire video, creating a product seen as combining the best of what Facebook and YouTube currently offer for marketers.
Promoted videos were first tested by Twitter back in August; at the time, the company said advertisers would be charged per view, and that users would have to manually click to watch a video.
Twitter’s second order of revenue-generating business is a move to sell in-stream ads to other publishers’ tweet-powered apps and websites.
Twitter executives explained the initiative to media buyers at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show; though they haven’t revealed which publishers they’ll be partnered with to start, ESPN’s SportsCenter app and Flipboard were showcased.
The social network’s endgame, according to company sources, is to earn the right to boast possession of “the largest daily audience online.” Though they have a ways to go to give Facebook a run for their money on that front, Twitter appears to be laying solid groundwork toward realizing that goal.
