Dec. 10--Wall Street has been griping for years that Twitter Inc. is missing opportunities to generate more revenue with its vast audience.
But in a major step announced Thursday that could ease some of those complaints, the social media giant said it would start delivering ads to the 500 million users who visit the site or app without logging on.
The move marks the first time Twitter has tried to make money beyond its 320 million monthly active users that bother to sign in with accounts. The ads will appear on Twitter timelines as promoted tweets and videos.
"By letting marketers scale their campaigns and tap into the total Twitter audience, they will be able to speak to more people in new places using the same targeting, ad creative, and measurement tools," wrote Deepak Rao, Twitter's revenue product manager, in a blog post Thursday. "Marketers can now maximize the opportunities they have to connect with that audience."
Twitter will begin rolling out the ads through a handful of advertisers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and Australia.
The company re-appointed Jack Dorsey as its chief executive in October to reverse a lackluster financial performance.
Twitter shares rose over 7% in early trading Thursday to $26.
