Twitter advertising network MyLikes raises seed round
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Expect to see a lot more advertising on Twitter.
The popular social networking site just announced its strategy to place ads atop search results and eventually in users’ feeds.
Now MyLikes, a Twitter advertising network, has raised $630,000 in seed funding.
The interesting twist: Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan decided they would only allow former Google Inc. colleagues to invest in the company, including FriendFeed co-founder and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, now at Facebook. Robert Scoble and Louis Gray are joining as advisers.
Over the last year, companies such as Ad.ly, Sponsored Tweets of Orlando, Fla., and MyLikes have sprung up to match advertisers with Twitter users. MyLikes launched in January.
Reddy says her company empowers Twitter users who have developed a loyal following in niches such as travel, beauty or comedy to earn some extra cash by promoting products they have used and enjoy.
MyLikes users are given their pick of ads and each day can tailor one to the interests of their audience. Users get paid per click, from 20 cents to $1. The higher the click-through rate, the more money they make per click. Reddy said this form of advertising is potent because “these people are very good at engaging their audience.”
She says she’s not worried about competition from Twitter.
“The Twitter ad strategy is definitely interesting,’ Reddy said, ‘but we think that ads created by influencers whom people are actually following can be much more powerful.”