Things appear to be getting serious, financially speaking, at Twitter: WSJ - Twitter Inc. is offering advertisers a new incentive in an attempt to woo brands back to the social-media platform, which has seen its ad business deteriorate following Elon Musk‘s $44 billion takeover.
The tech company is dangling free ad space by offering to match advertisers’ ad spending up to $250,000, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The full $500,000 in advertising must run by Feb. 28, the emails said.
Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The incentives are the latest effort by the company to get brands to spend on its platform. Recently, Twitter offered advertisers $500,000 in free ads as long as they spent at least $500,000. Also: TechCrunch - Twitter is considering selling usernames as a way to boost revenue, according to a new report from The New York Times. The report comes as the social network’s owner, Elon Musk, has been looking for ways to generate revenue for the company.
The report says engineers at the company have considered organizing online auctions where people can bid for usernames, also known as handles. The potential new revenue stream has been discussed since at least December. It’s unknown if the idea will come to fruition, and if it does, it’s unclear if the plan will affect all usernames or only some of them.
Twitter’s username squatting policy does not allow the buying and selling of usernames. Despite this rule, people have been able to buy coveted Twitter usernames on the black market for years. The practice of selling desirable usernames has also attracted hackers in the past.