HTC to deploy advertisements to users' home screens
HTC users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan, and China will start to notice advertisements creeping into their BlinkFeed.
Announced on its blog on Tuesday, HTC said it will be introducing "native promotions" to its home-screen information feed, effective immediately.
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According to the post, this rollout is a pilot to test and analyse the effectiveness of such advertisements.
"It's too soon for us to say when or if these promotions will be rolled out to additional markets. Of course, we'll keep you updated as this pilot develops," the blog said.
"We hope that displaying native and limited promotions in this way will help you discover new and useful apps and/or products and services."
These advertisements will appear as a typical BlinkFeed post rather than as labelled advertising. Users already have the option of turning the BlinkFeed function off, but HTC has said that it will be implementing a way for users to opt out of receiving the promotions.
HTC boasted a net profit after tax of NT$360 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, with quarterly revenue up 25 percent in comparison to last year.
Earlier this week, HTC quashed speculation surrounding its potential acquisition by Asus. The computer hardware giant has been shunned by HTC, posting on its investor site that it will not consider being acquired.