Twitter axes third-party ads

Third parties can no longer place ads in Twitter timelines

Twitter has decided to ban all third-party advertisers from injecting paid Tweets into the service.

The company will amend its developer terms of service to include a clause which bans third parties from using the service's API framework to inject advertising into Twitter streams.

With the new rules in place, the Promoted Tweets service will be the only authorised way to place advertising within Twitter content.

Twitter launched the service last month as a way for advertisers to place paid tweets by user search queries.

Dick Costolo, chief operating officer at Twitter, said in a blog post that a flood of ads could make its way into the service and turn users off the platform.

"As our primary concern is the long-term health and value of the network, we have and will continue to forego near-term revenue opportunities in the service of carefully metering the impact of Promoted Tweets on the user experience," he wrote.

"It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem."

While the API has been locked down, the company believes that there are other ways for third parties to make money through Twitter, such as the development of analytics tools or advertising placed outside the Twitter content within the third-party tool itself.

Additionally, the company is soon hoping to ad new tools for cashing in on the service when it launches the Annotations meta data platform.