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Do people really search Twitter enough to make this their cash cow? (Assuming they refrain from putting ads in the normal timeline, and just have them on search

Do people really search Twitter enough to make this their cash cow? (Assuming they refrain from putting ads in the normal timeline, and just have them on search.) The last paragraph implies that that's what they're doing, but it seems that searches are infrequent enough that it'll be hard for this to make them real profits. Plus, if people dislike the ads at all, at least one client (probably many), will be "the ad-free client", and many people will start searching through that/those clients.

tjarratt 17y ago
I'm not sure that's true actually. The vast majority of users I've seen find a client and stick with it. While power users will probably get annoyed by the ads and find a new one, I suspect an average user will learn to cope, or simply stop using the service.
- jfornear 17y ago
  Yep, I just use the free Twitterrific client on the iPhone and it actually serves high quality, unobtrusive, and occasionally helpful ads via The Deck. I've never been bothered by them enough to consider jumping ship. Advertising isn't inherently undesirable, but even if it were, its annoyance would still have to exceed the cost of migration for users to make a switch.
_delirium 17y ago
My guess is that they're being cautious, and rolling out ads somewhere they think won't lead to a big backlash. They're already profitable with just the search-feed deals with Google and Microsoft, so they can afford to take it slowly, I think.
alex1 17y ago
They do have plans to put these promoted tweets in users' timelines... From AdAge (http://adage.com/digiconf10/article?article_id=143237 http://adage.com/digiconf10/article?article_id=143237): During this roll-out, Twitter will study how resonance works and decide in the fourth quarter whether -- or how -- to take ads beyond search and into users' Twitter feeds. "Is it great in search and horrible in the timeline? We are going to test and test and test," Mr. Costolo said.
sunchild 17y ago
Data point: Search is the only feature of Twitter that I use. I mostly use it to see whether other people are buzzing about something at that very moment.
- stanleydrew 17y ago
  Right, but is that kind of search really monetizeable? I guess we'll find out.

tjarratt 17y ago

I'm not sure that's true actually. The vast majority of users I've seen find a client and stick with it. While power users will probably get annoyed by the ads and find a new one, I suspect an average user will learn to cope, or simply stop using the service.

jfornear 17y ago
Yep, I just use the free Twitterrific client on the iPhone and it actually serves high quality, unobtrusive, and occasionally helpful ads via The Deck. I've never been bothered by them enough to consider jumping ship. Advertising isn't inherently undesirable, but even if it were, its annoyance would still have to exceed the cost of migration for users to make a switch.

_delirium 17y ago

My guess is that they're being cautious, and rolling out ads somewhere they think won't lead to a big backlash. They're already profitable with just the search-feed deals with Google and Microsoft, so they can afford to take it slowly, I think.

alex1 17y ago

They do have plans to put these promoted tweets in users' timelines... From AdAge (http://adage.com/digiconf10/article?article_id=143237 http://adage.com/digiconf10/article?article_id=143237): During this roll-out, Twitter will study how resonance works and decide in the fourth quarter whether -- or how -- to take ads beyond search and into users' Twitter feeds. "Is it great in search and horrible in the timeline? We are going to test and test and test," Mr. Costolo said.

sunchild 17y ago

Data point: Search is the only feature of Twitter that I use. I mostly use it to see whether other people are buzzing about something at that very moment.

stanleydrew 17y ago
Right, but is that kind of search really monetizeable? I guess we'll find out.