Twitter to expand advertising products

In an effort to generate more revenue, Twitter plans to put in place new advertising products in 50 countries by the end of the year, the Guardian reported.

Certain prioritised markets on the list include Brazil, Spain and Germany.

"There is a ton of demand but we don't have dates as yet," Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo told the Guardian.

"The company has always put itself in a position to choose when it is ready [to make strategic decisions such as an IPO or sale]. We do things when we are ready. We have a good understanding about pacing and have the discipline to make the [right] choices ourselves," Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, said at a press conference at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity last week, according to the Guardian.

Twitter’s first ad product, Promoted Tweets, was introduced in 2010. Following Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, Promoted Trends, new analytics tools and additional targeting capabilities were added to Twitter’s advertising products. During the same time, Twitter’s partners grew from six to more than 1,600, Twitter’s advertising blog explained. 

Twitter is expected to gain more than US$1 billion in advertising revenues in 2014, which means that it will grow twice the speed some analysts predict, Bloomberg reported.

Researchers at eMarketer Inc. estimate that the microblogging service would reach $540 million in ad sales in 2004, which would make up almost all of its revenue. However, it will have taken Twitter longer to generate $1 billion than Facebook and Google. Facebook generated more than $3 billion in ad revenue in 2011.

“The marketers who have used Twitter’s advertising opportunities have been pleased,” Nate Elliott, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. (FORR) in New York, told Bloomberg. “Twitter’s going to be able to push forward and continue to make more money from it.” 

Image: Twitter's Advertising Blog