* To help co cash in on additional 500 mln people each month
* Will use promoted tweets and videos on desktop website
* Shares rise as much as 7.8 pct
(Adds background, updates share movement)
By Anya George Tharakan
Dec 10 (Reuters) - Twitter (N:TWTR) Inc TWTR.N said it was testing
a feature to show advertisements to people who read tweets
without logging in, as it tries to make good on its long-time
ambition to monetize non-active users.
The company said the feature will help it cash in on an
additional half a billion people each month, pushing its shares
up as much as 7.8 percent to $26.21 on Thursday - their biggest
percentage gain in two months.
The promoted tweets and videos will be available on
Twitter's desktop website, particularly on people's profile
pages and "tweet detail" pages that highlight specific tweets.
The move will be welcomed by advertisers who have shied away
from Twitter saying it doesn't have enough users, unlike rival
Facebook Inc FB.O , which boasts more than 1.55 billion monthly
active users (MAUs). Twitter has 320 million MAUs.
Facebook, which had once struggled to monetize its social
networking platform, has been consistently launching tools to
capture ad dollars.
Twitter had first broached this idea last year when Chief
Financial Officer Anthony Noto said it would be possible to
monetize logged-out users once the company "nailed the consumer
experience".
The company has said that ads targeted at logged-out users -
or people who view tweets without a Twitter account - would
bring in $2.50 in average revenue per user (ARPU). Its logged-in
user base brings in more than $4 in ARPU.
Twitter has been experimenting under Jack Dorsey - the
company's co-founder who returned as chief executive in October
- to make the website more engaging.
"The best thing to happen under Jack Dorsey would be the
fact that they are going to rethink all aspects of their
business," Monness, Crespi, Hardt, & Co Inc analyst James Cakmak
said.
"Before it was a case of doing the same thing and hoping
things change."
In the few months under Dorsey, Twitter introduced the
'Moments' feature, added polls to tweets, laid off about 8
percent of its workforce and rolled out a "buy" button.
The company also said earlier this week it was testing a
feature where tweets would be sorted by relevance instead of
reverse chronological order.
The new ads feature was being tested with some advertisers
in the United States, UK, Japan and Australia, Twitter said on
Thursday. The company plans to roll it out to more markets
around the world.