Twitter launches 24/7 news service TicToc in collaboration with Bloomberg

Twitter launched a news service in conjunction with Bloomberg yesterday, the latest in a series of live-content partnerships the social networking service hopes will attract users and advertisers.

The news service, branded as TicToc by Bloomberg, will feature a mix of live video and reporting from Bloomberg journalists, alongside verified breaking news content sourced from consumers, curated and verified by Bloomberg editors with a real-time distillation of the related conversation on Twitter.

A short news digest will be updated hourly between 6am to 10pm Eastern Standard Time (currently 3pm to 7pm UAE time), expanding to 24 hourly updates in early 2018.

“Combining the journalistic integrity of Bloomberg with the speed and global availability of Twitter makes this a collaboration we are really excited about,” said Twitter’s chief operating officer Anthony Noto.

AT&T Business, CA Technologies, CME Group, Goldman Sachs, Infiniti, SAS and TD Americtrade have signed on as sponsors to the service. The tie-up with Bloomberg was one of 12 content-streaming deals announced by Twitter in May, together with agreements to stream selected concerts from Live Nation, and to broadcast live action from golf’s PGA Tour.

Twitter hopes such content deals will increase user engagement, thereby proving more attractive to big brands, amid fierce competition for advertising spend with the likes of Facebook and Google.

The company in October reported a doubling year-on-year of advertising engagement for the third quarter of the year, even though advertising revenue for the period dropped 8 per cent year-on-year. JPMorgan forecasts a 5.5 per cent rise in advertising revenue in 2018 compared with 2017.

Twitter has signed a series of video content deals with Middle East brands and content providers, including Khalejia, Layalina and Fatafeat.

The company signed a partnership in June with Sela Sports to live stream 21 matches from the 2017 Arab Championship regional football tournament, its first live stream of a global football tournament.