Twitter Inc. is opening a large potential advertiser base by making it possible to pay to promote content in about 180 more countries and territories.
It marks a milestone for the San Francisco-based company, which has long said international expansion was a priority, but until last week had self-service advertising available only in 33 countries, Twitter said in a statement. Those types of advertisements allow people to pay to show their tweets to more people who aren't following them.
The move could boost Twitter's revenue. A vast majority of the social-media company's users are overseas, but the U.S. accounted for 63 percent of its $452 million second-quarter revenue. Adam Bain, the company's revenue chief, has said he's especially interested in expanding Twitter's presence in markets with high smartphone use, such as Indonesia and Brazil.
The company now offers ads in 15 languages and said it has 100,000 active advertisers, including small businesses that use the self-serve product. For comparison, Facebook Inc. in February said it had 2 million advertisers.