Twitter mulling subscription services and tipping features
Social networking giant Twitter has hinted it may roll out a subscription service, as it has started testing such features, primarily aimed at influencers and creators.
During the trial run, Twitter wants to get a better understanding of how users can interact differently on the platform, mainly through tipping and paywalls. The idea is to allow influencers to monetise their large followings.
According to Yahoo News this evening, Twitter didn’t provide details on how tipping may work.
However, Twitter’s Head of Design and Research, Dantley Davis, suggested the feature was related to the company’s move into long-form content, following its acquisition of newsletter company Revue recently.
The announcement comes after an analyst presentation earlier today, which revealed how Twitter planned to use its metrics moving forward.
Yahoo reported that, during the presentation, Twitter explained how ‘super follows’ would provide users with access to newsletters, special badges and other exclusive content.
Additionally, creators could set tweets so that only people who have paid for super follows can reply.
“We’re rethinking incentives and exploring solutions to provide monetary incentive models for Creators and Publishers to be directly supported by their audience,” a Twitter spokesperson reportedly said.
Founded in 2006, Twitter has grown from being nothing more than a micro-blogging site to one of the most visited websites ever, with more than 330m active monthly users.
The company has predicted its annual revenue will double to at least $7.5bn over the next three years. This would enable the company to achieve a compound annual growth rate of roughly 20 per cent from its base of 152m users who can view ads.
Under the tenure of current CEO Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s influence has grown considerably, with the likes of previous US President Donald Trump being permanently banned from the platform after the storming of Congress in January.
Looking ahead, Twitter didn’t indicate when it would start testing any of these features, or when they could launch. However, Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour noted that the company has dramatically increased the pace in which it releases new features over the last couple years.