Scoop: Bloomberg expects eight figures for new Twitter network
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Bloomberg's new Twitter network will launch on Dec. 18 with six founding partners: Goldman Sachs, Infiniti, TD Ameritrade, CA Technologies, AT&T and CME Group — and more are in the works. The average price point of the partnerships is $1.5 to 3 million, leading to Bloomberg securing eight figures in revenue in its first year.
Why it matters: The investment is a part of a major digital push by the company to stay competitive in an era where Google and Facebook have tightened their grip on the digital advertising market.
The details: Bloomberg is hiring around 50 people to staff the new project, which will exist as the first 24-hour social news network on Twitter.
"In this age of the Google/Facebook duopoly, a relentless focus on invention and innovation is the only way to succeed," says Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith. "The fruits of disruption don't and shouldn't only belong to the dominant tech (aka "Media") platforms."
"Massive growth opportunities are available to all, but they require companies and leaders aggressively committed to new thinking and new models," says Smith.
- Bloomberg Media's digital advertising revenue has grown over 25% year to date, through Q3 and Q4 advertising bookings are pacing even stronger. The company just has its best-performing quarter ever, largely thanks to advertising sales revenue. Its Q3 total advertising revenue grew more than 5% year over year, driven by digital growth in custom content, video, audio, and programmatic.
- Bloomberg today offers 27 different ad tech products, which are developed in-house. The site's current design is a product of in-house engineers pushing for a clean, scrolling user experience that mimicks the interactions a user would typically see on a tech platform. An in-house product called Javelin was built to cut page load time by 30-50%.
- Bloomberg has so far collected data on more than 1 million users across its digital platforms, driving personalization on its site and apps and helping its newsroom automatically tag stories with metadata.
- Data-driven insights have also become a major revenue stream for Bloomberg, with ad products like Trigr that allow marketers to buy ads in response to the markets in real time.
A commitment to digital has transcended to Bloomberg's TV and video strategy, with strategic investments in over-the-top and connected devices. On Amazon, Bloomberg recently launched a new video flash briefing for the Echo Show device in July, which has doubled in audience-size since March.
Traffic to Bloomberg's OTT platforms grew +12% month over month from August to September, driven by Apple TV and Samsung TV viewership.
