There is now a way to get rid of Twitter ads: become famous. Or at least that’s what Twitter appears to be suggesting by testing the removal of ads for users it sees as “prominent and active.”
Twitter has reduced or completely gotten rid of ads for users who are active and whose tweets reach a large number of people according to sources who spoke to Re/code.
For everyone else Twitter ads look like regular tweets on their Twitter feed that have a small tag showing they have been promoted by a company. Twitter is hoping reducing these ads will keep their most valued users active so their followers continue to be engaged.
But while this new feature may be a neat perk for a select few, don’t expect it to be available to more than a tiny fraction of users, as Twitter gets almost all of its revenue from advertisements. Last year that number reached $2.2 billion, and it’s growing.
The rule on who does and does not have to deal with ads is not explicitly defined, with no clear criteria for who is in the running, so feel free to turn off your ad blocker and find out whether you are considered a “prominent” member of Twitter.
All eyes have been on Twitter after last year’s CEO craziness and musings over a character limit change initially reported for later this quarter, not to mention a management shakeup earlier this week.