Twitter’s Advertising Platform To Launch “Within a Month or So” [Updated]

Updates at the foot of this post.

Twitter’s advertising platform launch is ‘imminent’ writes MediaPost.

According to a panel discussion between Seth Goldstein (chief executive officer and co-founder of socialmedia.com) and Anamitra Banerji (head of product management and monetization at Twitter), Twitter’s ad platform launch is just a month or so away.

In the panel, Goldstein queried Banerji to share details on the launch of the much anticipated ad platform. Goldstein asked, you will “likely in the next month or so offer Twitter owned and operated ads, perhaps?” to which Banerji replied, “that’s right.”

Goldstein also asked questions such as “you were at Overture before, so what did you learn from that experience” when it comes to “developing the first search ads you’re putting into Twitter?”

“Innovate very, very quickly, before someone innovates on top of you,” Banerji said. “And be very, very focused on execution. Just be dedicated to your own roadmap and don’t worry so much about what’s happening around you.”

Completing the round of questions, Goldstein asked how Twitter will manage that while supporting the ability to let a “thousand flowers bloom around the ecosystem?”

“We don’t think of ourselves as a Web site — essentially it’s a platform,” Banerji said. “We don’t really control the ads or the way the tweets are viewed and then consumed. We are completely open around other people innovating around us. Ultimately, publishers should have choice. But the one area of concern for us — and that’s if bad ads get identified in Twitter — it’s a problem for us in the long term. So, we should do whatever we can to encourage positive behavior.”

Update:

According to GigaOm’s sources, Twitter is likely to launch its new ad platform at SXSW which begins on March 12th. It would be a fitting time to launch considering most mainstream media still believe Twitter launched at SXSW.