Third-party ad networks have been officially banned from Twitter, a move that could drive some of the advertising start-ups that have built around Twitter out of business.
"We will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API," according to a post on the Twitter blog on Monday from chief operating officer Dick Costolo, explaining that the exception will be Twitter's own Promoted Tweets programme that it announced earlier this year.
As Twitter has moved from open-ended communication platform to structured company with a nascent business model, many of the third-party companies that built businesses on top of its API have felt the heat. Prior to its unveiling of the Promoted Tweets advertising programme, Twitter announced that it had acquired iPhone client Tweetie and would launch other official mobile clients as well.
For more on this story, see Twitter cuts the cord on third-party ad networks on CNET News.
