Story by
Lauren Hockenson
ReporterLauren is a reporter for The Next Web, based in San Francisco. She covers the key players that make the tech ecosystem what it is right now. Lauren is a reporter for The Next Web, based in San Francisco. She covers the key players that make the tech ecosystem what it is right now. She also has a folder full of dog GIFs and uses them liberally on Twitter at @lhockenson.
Do you see ads on Twitter? If you don’t, you may be a part of an elite group of users whom the company has decided to protect from the mild annoyances of commercial noise.
According to a report from Re/code, Twitter’s efforts to help this select group of “VIP” users stay engaged long-term on the platform. Apparently there are many factors that could get you into the low-ad or no-ad group, including fame, volume of tweets and potential reach of tweets.
Given the general public’s annoyance over ads on any service, it seems like a valuable tactic superficially. But, the manipulation of ads on a given users feed has a lot of far reaching consequences — even for the advertiser who is putting money into Twitter on the premise that valuable eyeballs will see that content.
But if you happen to know the secret formula behind never seeing ads again, please let me know.
➤ Twitter Has Stopped Showing Ads to Some of Its Most Valuable Users [Re/Code]