Twitter made a small but important move in its evolution as an ad platform this week with the introduction of its first mobile ad unit. The move was greeted with predictable complaints from the early-adopter crowd. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is focused on building out the Twitter platform in a way that doesn’t turn off its growing user base. There’s plenty of work to be done. Twitter just introduced ad products last year, Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trending Topics and Promoted Accounts. According to eMarketer, Twitter generated $45 million in revenue in 2010. With former MySpace sales exec Adam Bain building out a sales team, the company clearly plans to increase that quickly.
More in Media
Amazon expands media footprint with iHeart sales deal and new TV outcome tool
Amazon is deepening its role in streaming advertising with an expanded iHeartMedia sales deal and outcome-based TV buying technology.
Media Briefing: Inside publishers’ real Cannes agenda – AI money vs agentic hype
For publishers, Cannes this year isn’t just about showing up for clients and sponsors. It’s a mid‑year checkpoint on two hard questions: who is going to pay for the open web in an AI world, and whether agentic media buying is a real fix or just a freshly branded ad‑tech tax.
Forbes tests a creator-led audience play to grow off-platform reach
Forbes is yet another publisher tapping creators and their audiences to drive off-platform growth – with a slightly different structure.