On Tuesday, Twitter reported on its past three months with its Q2 2014 earnings call. The main headline was a financially-strong quarter for the social media network, but hidden within Twitter’s report was a hint from CFO Anthony Noto about the site’s upcoming online video plans.
Noto, who arrived at Twitter at the beginning of July, explained that the company plans to make a big launch during the coming month. “In August, we will launch the beta version of our new promoted video offering which provides a way for high quality content producers and brands [to] easily upload, share and measure the distribution and effectiveness of their video content on Twitter,” he said.
As The Wall Street Journal explains, this “promoted video offering” could signal a bigger online video presence for Twitter. Right now, brands and other top publishers can promote video content through the site’s Amplify service, and video ads have been tested as a way to monetize content on the site. The new service may use this existing infrastructure to create a platform through which content creators can upload video to Twitter and target it at relevant users.
Twitter previously hinted at its plan to become a major player in online video when it hired Baljeet Singh, formerly of YouTube, as its Head of TV and Video. That hire raises the possibility that Twitter will attempt to use its new offering to entire top online content creators to its platform. If it does, it will join the likes of Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, and Vessel, all of which are attempting to upset the YouTube status quo at the top of the online video industry.
Twitter does have both the scale and the finances needed to become a big name in online video. If Noto is to be believed, we’ll know the specifics of the company’s plan sometime in the next month.
Photo credit: Scott Beale/ Twitter Office via flic.kr
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