Twitter 'pay their way' into newsfeeds

This week Twitter will make its stock market debut, with a valuation of as much as £16bn.

It is just seven years old and has never made a profit.

The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, reporting for the Today programme, says some have questioned about how the company will make money.

James Watley, social media strategist at advertising firm Ogilvy, says: "Twitter now offers advertisers a number of ways to pay their way into people's twitter newsfeeds.

"That might be through a promoted tweet, or a promoted trend. The former is based around your conversations, so if I talk about how I like video games, then Microsoft might be interested in buying a promoted tweet into my stream.

"Because Twitter has all your conversation data, they're able to sell ads against that, to companies," he adds.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday 5 November 2013.