Twitter has hatched a brand new plan to ruin your news feed

Get ready to stare at an autoplay video ad at the top of your Twitter feed every single day -- until you, or Twitter, give up.

Twitter announced Tuesday that it plans to roll out a new premium advertising offering which will let marketers place a video ad near the top of the news feed.

The new product, called First View, promises to offer advertisers "exclusive ownership of Twitter’s most valuable advertising real estate for a 24-hour period," according to Twitter's announcement. "When users first visit the Twitter app or log in to twitter.com, the top ad slot in the timelines will be a Promoted Video from that brand."

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In short, Twitter is giving away the crown jewel to advertisers. 

The inevitable result: giving brands the biggest bang for their buck and giving Twitter users yet another reason to feel wounded and mistreated.

It's only been a few days after all, since the #RIPTwitter hysteria when one unconfirmed report suggested that the company might be changing its news feed, leading to a nearly Internet-wide meltdown. 

The social network is said to be weighing drastic product changes, including doing away with its iconic 140 character limit and introducing an algorithmic news feed similar to its much larger rival Facebook, to appeal to the hundreds of millions of users who have tried out Twitter and given up because it's too complicated or unintuitive.

Why Twitter can't let Twitter be Twitter

All of Twitter's apparently desperate moves come at a time when it needs to show sustained traction with marketers and ensure continued revenue growth while its user numbers stall. The company's tanking stock price has also been a continuous source of lamentation. 

And you better get used to it: unless Twitter kickstarts user growth, it will have to lean harder and harder on making money off of its current, loyal user base to satisfy investors. That means more ads. Lots more.

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All eyes on earnings

The advertising announcement comes one day before Twitter is scheduled to release its holiday quarter earnings report, offering the latest glimpse into cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey's attempts to turn around the business and lure in more new users.

Wall Street investors have lost all patience with riskier tech companies in this volatile stock market, abandoning the stocks of businesses like LinkedIn, GoPro and Match Group after their disappointing earnings reports in recent weeks.

Twitter, already trading at all-time lows, will likely face similar scrutiny. And every dollar its stock declines only makes it more of a target for potential acquirers or activist investors.

The First View advertising product may at least give Twitter something "positive" to point investors to with its latest earnings results. But it will certainly give the rest of Twitter's community something new to complain about.

The bet, however, is that we will continue making those complaints on Twitter rather than taking our grievances and our accounts elsewhere. 

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