Twitter Reportedly to Roll Out Advertising

SAN FRANCISCO (

TheStreet

) --

Twitter

will begin rolling out advertising to users Tuesday, the company's attempt to turn its microblogging service into a profitable business, the

Wall Street Journal

reports.

There will be around 10 initial advertisers, including

Starbucks

(SBUX) - Get Report

,

Virgin America

and

Best Buy

(BBY) - Get Report

.

For Promoted Tweets, the new service, the ads will appear at the top of results for searches users conduct on Twitter, similar to

Google's

(GOOG) - Get Report

successful search-advertising system, the

Journal

says.

Initially, the company will charge marketers per thousand impressions of their ads. Over time, it plans to move to a more complex model, charging based on how users interact with the messages, the newspaper reports.

The new feature could help millions of businesses who have signed up for the service to share deals and other corporate updates. Twitter CEO Evan Williams and co-founder Biz Stone have been exploring a variety of monetization models, including enhanced services for businesses, the

Journal

reports.