Twitter surges on plans to capitalise on logged-out users

Twitter shares surged after it announced plans to start showing ads to the 500m people who visit the site but are not logged in.

The move, which has been on the cards for over a year, means anyone who clicks on a tweet that appears in a Google search will see ads on that tweet page or on the tweet creator’s profile.

The ads will initially be rolled out on desktop but are expected to expand to mobile in the near future.

"What we're launching is a way for marketers to target more of Twitter's total audience than they've ever had before," said chief operating officer Adam Bain.

“It's starting in a pilot with select advertisers in the US, UK, Japan and Australia, rolling out to more geographies in the future.”

The news came at a good time for Twitter, whose shares tanked in late October after its third-quarter earnings failed to impress.

At 1550 GMT, Twitter shares were up 6.7% to $25.94.