Twitter [3], AllThingsD reports [4], has been steadily increasing the price it charges for a company to sponsor a "promoted trend" in users' Twitter webpages and inside mobile apps on top of the real chatter-driven trends [5] sourced in tweet streams [6]. The service cost went up earlier in 2013, and it now costs $200,000 per day (and per territory, though where territories start and stop appears to be unclear)--up from $150,000 in 2012 and $80,000 at launch in 2010. Those are like NYC subway fare spikes [7]!

Trends provide a very simple but reliable [8] type of brand exposure. The price hike is a sign that the service is proving popular with advertisers, and that the system really does work by increasing customer engagement.

Is Twitter's revenue-generating future based on these sort of low-level, non-intrusive adverts? Or will the company have to be more aggressive?

[Image: Flickr user vastateparksstaff [9]]