Through cookies stored on users' machines by the websites they visit, Twitter will now be able to use more data to display relevant adverts to its users. It also claims this will save its advertisers money by only showing their adverts to those who are likely to be interested. According to Twitter, firms such as Digitas have already used the platform and have been happy with the results.
The industry's biggest online advertisers have
used cookie-based advertising for a long time, and it can be very
lucrative. But many privacy bodies and watchdogs have become concerned
about how websites use cookies, and that many internet surfers don't
fully understand how they are being used. In 2012 the UK's Information
Commissioner's Office set regulations requiring all websites using cookies to display a prominent notice explaining exactly how cookies would be used and how they would affect the browsing experience.
Twitter, however, says it has taken this into account
and gives its members multiple ways of opting out. Users who have
enabled the "do not track" function in their web browser, and those who
edit their Twitter privacy settings, will not be targeted. It is an
opt-out process, though.
Twitter became a publicly traded company in November, successfully launching onto the New York Stock Exchange, initially valued at more than $30bn.
While the firm is a significant loss maker, investors were pleased to
see Twitter received much of its revenue from mobile advertising and by
the fact that the firm has room for expansion into more targeted
advertising, including cookie-based and location-based ads.
At the end of November, Twitter launched its
self-service advertising platform in the UK, allowing smaller businesses
to more easily handle their campaigns. This was a step towards serving
highly lucrative local advertisements, highlighting how much room for
manoeuvre the company has in the advertising space.
No comments:
Post a Comment