Twitter set to make money through ads

NEW YORK, USA: Popular microblogging site Twitter is all set to unveil its advertisement model on Tuesday, which would mark its first step towards allaying concerns about its revenue generating potential.

The advertising program known as "Promoted Tweets" will be rolled out to two to ten percent of users via search on Twitter.com beginning Tuesday, company spokesperson Sean Garrett told Reuters.

Promoted Tweets are ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users, Garrett said.

"Users will start to see tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages," he added.

Several companies will run ads, including Best Buy, Virgin America and Starbucks, the New York Times said in its website.

The 2-1/2-year-old Internet start-up, whose short text messages or "tweets" have become a global social phenomenon. Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others, it said in its website.

Twitter, a privately held company, does not report earnings, but its website says: "While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make."