Twitter is finally launching a way to get paid for tweeting that doesn’t involve inserting a Venmo link into your biography, promoting a Patreon, or using the app to hunt down a rich husband.
On Thursday, the company announced a new feature that could change the way the entire app works: Super Follows, which is essentially paid subscriptions for individual feeds on Twitter. Users will now be able to pay for certain types of content on other Twitter pages, with “Super Follows”, which allows them to charge more for different types of content. According to the Virgin, which could include giving paid subscribers access to private tweet feeds, Twitter new newsletter function, or profile badges. Another feature announced on Thursday, the ability for users to create and join groups called Communities, can also be protected. Both additions will not be released for several months and, according to Verge, it is not clear how big Twitter will get a revenue cut.
This is an important change in the way Twitter works: a long and rather tiring joke on the site was that “this site is free”, referring to the fact that none of its content directly costs money. The reverse of that equation is that monetizing a Twitter presence is impossible without referring fans elsewhere, even if that’s just to pay for access to a private Twitter feed. So this is kind of a big change, in the sense that it could reshape incentives for users to participate on the site in the first place and allow Twitter to compete directly with the Patreon crowdfunding app and similar payment tools on Facebook and YouTube. .
It’s also easy to see how he could open a Pandora’s box for Twitter. He has long struggled to control toxic communities, such as white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and far-right trolls, all of whom can now use the app as a way to make money. Adding private feeds to subscribers could also allow those who are so inclined to hide things, such as harassment campaigns behind billboards, where such content will be accessible to a smaller group of followers. who pay, which is unlikely to report it to site moderators. (It’s already possible to do this through direct messaging, blocked accounts, and off-site coordination, but still.)
Similarly, the Communities feature sounds pretty close to Facebook Groups. Facebook has pivoted from news flow to a focus on Groups in 2019, which it had disastrous consequences after the groups were infested with death threats, harassment and calls for violence.
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Another thing that Twitter has not clarified is whether it will allow Super Follows for sexual content, a type of content that is only subject to a a handful of restrictions elsewhere in the site (such as not posting it in banner or profile pictures.) Allowing it would put the site in direct competition with sites like OnlyFans, although when Samantha Cole’s board the base asked Twitter whether or not it will allow users to pay for pornography, the company responded with a non-response, arguing that it “examines and rethinks the incentives of our service.”
The announcement also sparked a wave of speculation that I’m joking about or not from reporters and other types of media about whether or not their employers will allow them to charge for tweets. It’s no secret that journalists are among the most addicted to Twitter on the planet and make up a large percentage energy users which dominates the flow of the application … and so easy to see why it is an attractive fantasy for them.
Suffice it to say that while anything subsidizes, let’s say, technology bloggers who buy fancy aquariums it is welcome, how big the reader’s appetite to fund 280-character knowledge or how willing the news organizations are to let staff retire, remains best speculative.
Twitter has recently launched countless features, including Instagram Stories-esque fleets; newsletters; and Clubhouse audio chat tool. He acquired a screen sharing application called Squad this could be useful if you decide to launch a streaming service and an advertising technology firm called CrossInstall which could help remedy its famous advertising tools. All of this could be related to a failed coup d’etat led by vampire hedge fund Elliott Management last March, urging Twitter to reach its much more profitable competition.
According to Verge, Twitter said on Thursday, in a business presentation, that paid subscriptions and the Community feature are marked as “next” without proposing a solid timetable for implementation. For cnbc, Twitter told analysts and investors that it hopes the new features will help it reach its $ 7.5 billion annual revenue target by 2023, about double the earnings now.