Twitter is finally looking for a way to get paid for tweets that do not put a Venmo link in your bio, promoting a Patreon or using the app to search for a wealthy spouse.
The company on Thursday announced a new feature that could change the way the app works entirely: Super Follows, which are essentially paid subscriptions for individual Twitter feeds. Users will now be able to pay for certain types of content from others on Twitter with ‘Super Follows’, enabling them to charge more for different types of content. According to the Verge, which may include giving paid subscribers access to private tweet feeds, Twitter’s new newsletter feature, or profile badges. Another feature announced Thursday is that users with the ability to create and join groups called Communities can also be paid. Both of these additions will not be introduced for a few months, and according to the Verge, it is not clear how big a cut Twitter will take from the revenue.
This is a big shift in the workings of Twitter: a long and tiring joke on the site was that ‘this site is free’, and refers to none of the content that directly costs money. The most important part of the comparison is that it is impossible to make money on a Twitter presence without referring fans to another place, even if only to pay for access to a private Twitter feed. This is therefore a big shift in that it can shape the incentives for users to participate in the site in the first place and allow Twitter to compete directly with the crowdfunding app Patreon and similar payment tools on Facebook and YouTube.
It’s also easy to see how it could open up a kind of Pandora’s Box for Twitter. It has long struggled to contain toxic communities such as white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and far-right trolls, and anyone can now possibly use the app to make money. The addition of private subscriber feeds can also make those who are so inclined hide things like harassment campaigns behind paywalls, where such content will be accessible to a smaller group of paying followers who are unlikely to report it to the site’s moderators. (It is already possible to do this via instant messaging, closed accounts and coordination outside the site, but still.)
Similarly, the communities feature sounds pretty close to Facebook groups. Facebook spun from the news feed to the emphasis on Groups in 2019, which it did disastrous consequences after saying that groups were infected with death threats, harassment and calls for violence.
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Another thing that Twitter has not made clear is whether it allows Super Follows for sexual content, a type of content that is only subject to a handful of restrictions elsewhere on the site (such as not posting it in banner images or profile pictures.) If allowed, it would put the site in direct competition with sites like OnlyFans, though Samantha Cole of Motherboard. ask Twitter whether it will enable users to pay for porn, the company replied with a no-answer, claiming that it is investigating and reconsidering the incentives of our service.
The announcement also sparked a wave of am-I-joke-or-not-me speculations of reporters and other media outlets about whether their employers allow them to charge fees for tweets. It’s no secret that journalists are one of the most Twitter-addicted people on the planet and make up a large percentage of them the power users which dominates the app’s feed … and so easy to see why it’s an attractive fantasy for them.
Suffice it to say that, although something that subsidizes, says: tech bloggers buying fine aquariums is welcome, how big the reader’s appetite is for funding insights of 280 characters, or how willing news organizations are to make staff work remains speculative at best.
Twitter has recently included countless features, including Instagram Stories-Like Fleets; newsletters; en a Clubhouse-like sound chat tool. It has a screen-sharing app called Squad it can be useful if he decides to start a streaming service and an adtech business Called CrossInstall which can help correct its infamous advertising tools. It can all be related to a failed investor grip led by vampire hedge fund Elliott Management, which demanded in March last year to catch up with its much more lucrative competition.
According to the Verge, Twitter said during a business presentation on Thursday that paid subscriptions and the community function are marked as “next” without submitting a solid timeline for implementation. By CNBC, Twitter told analysts and investors he hopes the new features will help it reach its $ 7.5 billion annual revenue target by 2023, about twice as much money it now earns.