Twitter fires up video drive as it aims to make it ‘the natural platform’ on the social site
Twitter is to expand its video products in a move the social media site has described as the first step "in making video the natural platform” for Twitter.
As part of the drive, Twitter will open up and evolve its video products and offer its one-click play video unit to all advertisers in a bid to encourage more content on the site. In addition, Snappy TV, the live clipping platform that Twitter acquired in June 2014, will also be available for free to advertisers as the social site eyes the “huge opportunity” to take video into live events.
Speaking at an event today, where the company revealed that it helped to drive 18 per cent of UK cinema ticket sales over a three-year period, Matt Boak, UK entertainment lead for Twitter, dubbed 2015 as the “year of video”.
He explained; “Some of you will already be aware of our native player which contains a pre expanded, one click play video unit…We’re actually going to be making that available to all advertisers this year, which is a great first step in making video the natural platform on Twitter.
“[There is] so much more coming on video [at Twitter] and there’s going to be a slew of amazing announcements coming throughout this year and next.”
David Wilding director of planning at Twitter told The Drum that the video trend worked “side by side” with mobile as an opportunity to convey messages across to users, and echoed Boak’s ambitions for video in 2015.
“Video is happening more and more and there are more ways of getting video across. More videos are being produced and clients are thinking about that as well. It’s a very strong trend that goes side by side with mobile [because] t’s a way of getting things across. Video will be a big trend this year as you can see with us evolving our video product.”
The push comes as competition between social network heats up: At the start of the year Facebook revealed that it hit a new mile stone for video in 2014 after it achieved one billion daily video views in the period. The acquisition of start-up Quickfire Network swiftly followed as Facebook looks to capitalise on the firm’s video compression expertise.
Earlier this month Twitter let slip details about its upcoming YouTube rival service that will crucially not support videos hosted on rival platforms, after information emerged online that showed the native advertising platform will play a key role in Twitter’s charge to exploit the online video explosion.