Twitter to curate Olympic Games

Worried you’ll miss out on all those magical Olympic moments while you’re at work? Relax, Twitter claims it’s got your back.

The social network will be acting as a sort of commentator for the forthcoming London games, set to officially kick off this Friday.

Under a deal, formed in partnership with US broadcaster NBC, the social network will curate “millions of Twitter messages from Olympic athletes, their families, fans and NBC television personalities”. According to the Wall Street Journal, the messages will appear on a single page.

NBC will reportedly attract viewers to the page “with on-air promotions and links to athlete interviews or video clips.”

According to the Journal, Twitter hopes the partnership will help it leverage itself as a sustainable business. Although it has over 100-million active users, some have expressed doubts about the social network’s sustainability.

The Olympics offer a chance for Twitter to give its user numbers a serious boost. According to vice president of Media Chloe Sladden, “This is a way for new users to sample Twitter”.

It’s betting big on getting those new users too. The deal with NBC saw no cash change hands.

The partnership is however as clear an indication of which direction the social network is looking to take. London 2012 will be the biggest event it’s associated itself with since overhauling the way it does search and discovery a few weeks ago.