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Yesterday micro-blogging site Twitter launched their new ‘promoted tweets’ service that will eventually see branded messages from companies such as Virgin and Red Bull appearing in users feeds and marks the first official commercialisation of the site.

The site which is valued at an estimated $1 Billion has resisted any prior move towards traditional advertising since it was launched 4 years ago. However, yesterday co-founder Biz Stone announced that the company would be launching their promoted tweets service which he described as “ordinary tweets that businesses and organisations want to highlight to a wider group of users”

At the current stage these ‘branded tweets’ will only appear at the top of some of the Twitter results pages, in a similar way to Google’s advertising system. Later on in the year Twitter will roll out the next phase of the advertising model which will allow the ‘promoted tweets’ to appear in a variety of different pages.

Biz Stone posted a statement on his blog saying that Twitter ranks as one of the most popular sites on the internet. Over the years, we've resisted introducing a traditional web advertising model because we wanted to optimise for value before profit. The open exchange of information creates opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses alike. We recognized value in this exchange and planned to amplify it in a meaningful and relevant manner…We hope you'll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil a simple service we're calling 'Promoted Tweets'. It's non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter.”

Some of the first companies to jump on the branded tweets service include Red Bull, Starbucks, Sony Pictures and Virgin America – but it won’t be long until many more companies are also on board.

In an attempt to guarantee usability and to not annoy their ever faithful crowd of ‘tweeters’ Twitter executives are insisting that all promoted tweets must “resonate with users” – therefore if the tweet isn’t interacted with (re-tweeted or replied to) then the message will be deleted.