Did Ashton Kutcher Just Reveal The Next Big Thing?
Tomorrow at Social Startup Conference TechCrunch Disrupt, Twitter superstar and social pioneer Ashton Kutcher will be formally introducing A.Plus, a personalized and branded Twitter client developed in partnership with social application creators UberMedia.
The 6.8 million fans of Kutcher’s social stream can now download the new Twitter client for either their Mac or Windows machine, and learn more about Ashton’s projects, including the DNA Foundation he runs with wife Demi Moore, as well as his media development company Katalyst.
If you haven’t been keeping up, there’s been an ongoing white-hot feud between UberMedia and social networking giant Twitter. Recently UberMedia was in heavy negotiations to purchase highly popular Twitter client TweetDeck, when Twitter announced its own intentions to court the company. Rumors went viral that UberMedia was planning to create a Twitter competitor, and that Twitter will likely shut down TweetDeck since its successful acquisition.
Kutcher is enjoying renewed interest from his loyal fans, straight off the heels of the announcement that he will replace media-embroiled actor Charlie Sheen on the show Two And A Half Men. While Sheen continues to figure out ways to make a living separate from the show, Kutcher will use A.Plus to monetize his social presence, through the addition of advertisements on the new client. These ads will appear alongside his social sharing.
At this time, Twitter does not allow its users to place ads into its own proprietary interface, and it has been somewhat fickle in its approach to third party clients using its network. It wasn’t long ago that Ubermedia’s client apps were all temporarily shut down after Twitter stated they were violating its terms of service.
By partnering with Ashton Kutcher, UberMedia has scored a coup – Twitter is highly unlikely to get into a shooting match with Kutcher himself by shutting down A.Plus’ inter-connection with their networking site.
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