Twitter.com Now Automatically Shortens Links

This is something Twitter users have wanted for a long time.  Now all you have to do is “just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com” and Twitter will shorten it for you automatically by itself! :D

The Chinese Twitter Clone!

Twitter: Here's How Your Chinese Rival Plans To Make More Money Than You:


It seems unlikely that there can be a competitor to Twitter, at least not in the English speaking world. However, in China, Social Media is taking off with competitors to Twitter (and Facebook) who are grabbing market share nearly as fast as the bird itself did it its early days. And, it may open up a great opporutnity for 3rd party developers who heavily contributed to Twitter's rapid growth.
Sina Weibo, the biggest Twitter clone in China, has had to deal with the same problem as Twitter: huge growth, not enough revenue.

It has a plan to fix all that, however, and it might be worth for Twitter to take a look. 

Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging site, is a social media site similar to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook,  launched by SINA Corporation, China's biggest web portal, in August 2009. According to Sina, the Weibo microblogging has more than 140 million users and millions of posts per day, and is adding 20 million new users per month. According to iResearch, Weibo has 56.5% of the microblogging market based on active users and 86.6% based on browsing time over competitors such as Tencent and Baidu. Sina has said it has more than 60,000 verified accounts, consisting of celebrities, sports stars and other VIPs. The top 100 users now have over 180 million followers combined. Furthermore, Sina said that more than 5,000 companies and 2,700 media organizations in China are currently using Weibo. The site is maintained by a growing microblogging department of 200 employees responsible for technology, design, operations, and marketing.  The site is currently available in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

According to Kathrin Hille of the Financial Times, "Sina Corp, Weibo’s parent, has developed features to make it more suitable than Twitter for commercial use. Pictures and videos can be easily posted and re-posted. Re-posted messages form a long thread in which pictures remain visible, and such a conversation makes it much easier for a commercial product or service to go viral."

Perhaps the most interesting thing Weibo has done is immediately make it more commercialized. Something Twitter has always had a love-hate relationship with 3rd party apps over.

Twitter to launch automated ad solution as Google exec claims display ads impressions to drop 25% by 2015

Social networking giant Twitter has said it may launch an advertising initiative for small businesses later this year that will automate ad buying in an attempt to drive up revenue and expand its advertising clout to SMEs.

But the report comes as Google vice president of display advertising Neal Mohan said during a presentation at the Interactive Advertising Bureau that the number of display ad impressions will fall by 25% per person by 2015, but ads will become much more tailored to personal profiles.

Mohan made a number of bets during the conference, saying that people will begin to connect and respond to display advertisements in different ways. Not only will the number of display ad impressions drop by 25%, but engagement rates across all display ads will increase by 50%.

"As ads become less cluttered, more relevant, more engaging and more attractive, we'll see the rate at which people interact with display ads (such as watching videos or playing games) increase dramatically."

"I believe the trend will be for people to ultimately see fewer, but better ads," he said.

Mohan also predicts businesses will start producing much more interactive advertisements, saying they will have a direct say in one quarter of all the ads they see online, whether they be in video ads or other types of displays.

"Whether by choosing to watch – or not watch – video ads, updating their ads preferences to customise the ads they see or actively subscribing to or choosing to receive particular ads, users will be more in control of when and how they see ads online."

Mohan also predicts 35% of campaigns will begin using metrics that are not just "clicks and conversions", saying marketers will start measuring their ads with tools such as engagement, and their subsequent impact on offline behaviour.

"We see a longer-term future where these become the primary metrics used to measure the success of a campaign, meaning marketers will be able to deliver the ads that potential customers say they like the most."

Forrester Research senior analyst Steven Noble says there is definitely a trend towards measuring the customer, rather than the channel through which they view ads.

"That's definitely the trend, and once you focus your measurement on the customer, then inherently you are collecting data that goes through channels. But so far organisations are struggling do this, and they face many barriers in getting there."

Nevertheless, Mohan continues making predictions, saying more people will start thinking of display ads as their favourite content, as companies start making more interesting ads that can be customised and individualised.

"We see a longer-term future where these become the primary metrics used to measure the success of a campaign, meaning marketers will be able to deliver the ads that potential customers say they like the most."

Meanwhile, Twitter president of global revenue Adam Bain has told Forbes that the company will be looking at releasing its turnkey ad solution "later this year".

Twitter has been struggling to gain revenue several years after launching, and has been attempting to boost its ad business – but the wide array of third-party clients, through which ads are diluted, make it hard for the company to earn money.

However, it has been controlling more of its ecosystem lately. The company recently acquired TweetDeck, a popular third-party client. Streaming SME ads through such networks could see a substantial increase in revenue.