Currently, Twitter is a free to use social media platform, even though it does show a whole lot of advertisements. However, the company wants to reduce its reliance on ads, and is now exploring different ways to earn revenue, according to a report by Business Insider. While initially, CEO Jack Dorsey had envisioned Twitter to be a free-for all platform (with emphasis on free), this seems to have changed recently, according to his latest tweets and thoughts on the organization’s quarterly calls.
Up till now, the major of twitter’s revenue comes from targeted advertisement. The team is now looking at subscriptions and exclusive content that people might have to pay for, according to the report. This includes possible changes to Tweetdeck, a fairly new feature which allows users to manage multiple accounts and view different feeds at the same time. Moreover, it is ad-free, which attracts users more than the main feed. Twitter might start charging users to continue to keep this feature ad-free. It might also go the extra yard, and make Tweetdeck pay-to-use altogether.
Another option that Twitter is looking at is verifications. Currently, the platform gives verification to only notable accounts of major personalities, but now its exploring the idea of businesses being able to claim verification by submitting a small fee. As getting a Twitter verification is reputable in the e-world right now, this might be an attractive offer, however its not famous amongst the team, as many believe this will lower the authenticity of the same.
Twitter is also looking at ways for viewers to pay content creators, who in turn will pay Twitter a cut of transactions. There is also talk of a prime monthly subscription to the platform, with these members getting exclusive content, like stickers and gifs, customizable palettes for their profile, better video quality and/or access to an ad-free Twitter. Exclusive content could also include the recently acquired Revue newsletter feature.
Analytics could be another field for which users, especially businesses, may pay for. While Twitter already offers some free analytics, like how many followers someone added in a month and how many impressions posts get, it could now also offer follower demographics, the type of content that is perceived as best, and the ideal time to post.
All these options are still being explored and measured up. These may not be available for a long time still if ever as, historically, Twitter has been quite slow at rolling out new features for revenue purposes. While competitors like Facebook have refused to ever deal with such offers, Twitter has been toying with such plans for a long time now. This is now being looked seriously due to the heightened priority and use put on social media platform, owing to the covid19 lockdown.
