In a lengthy blog post this morning that was broken down into sections titled “Enduring Value”, “Ecosystem Clarity” and “Fostering Innovation”, Twitter COO Dick Costolo basically declared that the microblogging mainstay is putting the kibosh on third-party, in-stream ads in order to protect revenue and Twitter’s own Promoted Tweets service.
Costolo states, “…We will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API. We are updating our Terms of Service to articulate clearly what we mean by this statement, and we encourage you to read the updated API Terms of Service to be released shortly.”
According to Costolo, Twitter’s “primary concern” now is the long-term health of the network and not “near-term monetization.” He goes on to explain why: “Third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created. They may optimize for either market share or short-term revenue at the expense of the long-term health of the Twitter platform. For example, a third party ad network may seek to maximize ad impressions and click through rates even if it leads to a net decrease in Twitter use due to user dissatisfaction.”
Twitter’s move will now likely spell the end for services like TweetUp, Twiver, 140 Proof, Betweeted and Magpie.
More: “Twitter’s New Ad Model: Everything We’ve Learned So Far”