Twitter Expands Video Ad Program

It’s a shot over the bow of the YouTube super tanker, intended to show that Twitter means business as it goes up against the video behemoth.

Twitter Inc on Tuesday stepped up its battle to attract video talent to its platform, saying it will allow U.S. users who upload a video to share in any advertising revenue it generates. As such, according to a story on Recode, Twitter will be selling ads with creator videos and will share the ad revenue with those making the video content.

Complete opt-in control/flexibility: Program participants can either elect to opt-in videos tweet-by-tweet or preset monetization for all of their videos. Twitter isn’t requiring content exclusives yet.

Media Studio, which replaces video.twitter.com, provides a comprehensive desktop destination where you can access all of our publishing tools and resources. It’s already capitalizing on broadcasts of sporting events and other events of national interest, but now it’s looking at individual creators and how to get them to buy into Twitter’s strategy. Of course, with a limited supply of created content, the cost per ad might be higher than if there were a steady stream from which to choose.

One caveat that would make this less than a win-win proposition for creators is the question of whether that diversification would result in dilution.

With the launch of this effort, Twitter is really digging deep to capture the influence of creators, something that YouTube first did years ago. But maybe some share of a creator’s YouTube or Facebook audience decides to stop watching his or her videos on those platforms in favor of Twitter. That willl allow creators to work directly with brands to develop content. CEO Jack Dorsey noted in an April shareholder letter that supporting creators and influencers was a top priority for Twitter over the next year.

Twitter shares dipped 0.5 percent to close at US$18.38 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Above: Twitter added an earnings section to its Engage app.

Team management and multi-account support.

The 70/30 split, which Twitter didn’t acknowledge in the blog post, but had previously confirmed to USA TODAY, is far richer than the terms offered by Google’s YouTube for video producers and performers – 55% for creators and 45% for Google.

VatorNews reached out to Twitter for more information.