Is Twitter Turning Into a Super Affiliate?

Targeting specifically deals-oriented users Twitter has introduced its new @EarlyBird account. This one will essentially be Twitter’s own account for the distribution of time-sensitive offers and discounts. All you need to do is follow it, and make sure you catch your worm early enough (before it’s gone).

Explaining what it is, and how it will work Twitter writes:

Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community.

The account has already had over 25,000 followers join it, and this is only after two non-deals-related tweets (read: the boom is yet ahead):

Twitter’s announcement continues:

Does Twitter make money from this?

Yes, we earn revenue through our relationships with advertisers. Our focus will be to try and make these deals interesting and of value to you. We take pride in being selective about the type of deals we highlight and hope they will be an exciting way to start your day.

How exactly will Twitter make money on this? This part is unclear now. Some already suggest that the opening of the @EarlyBird account marks Twitter’s “turn to to affiliate marketing”, but there’s no clear indication of this, because we haven’t seen one deal tweeted through this account yet, and can’t tell how these will be linked. I agree that “some sort of CPA model would seem to make the most sense” here [source], but won’t Twitter then automatically become a competitor of every affiliate who distributes links via Twitter (e.g.: using Amazon’s “Share on Twitter” button, LinkShare’s #TweetShop tool, or any other method or approach)? They will.

However, before discussing any potential implications of this any further, it seems sensible to just sit back, and wait for the first deal to be tweeted by the @EarlyBird account…