Twitter has announced the launch of a new feature that will allow users to offer subscriptions to their followers for long-form text and hours-long video content. The feature, which can be accessed through the “Monetization” tab in settings, will allow users to receive all the money that subscribers pay, with the exception of the charges levied by platforms such as Android and iOS.
The announcement was made by Twitter owner Elon Musk on Thursday. He also confirmed that Twitter will not take a cut of the revenue generated by the subscriptions for the first 12 months. “That’s 70 percent for subscriptions on iOS & Android (they charge 30 percent) and ~92 percent on the web (could be better, depending on payment processor),” Musk said in a tweet, adding Twitter will also help promote the creators’ work and maximize earnings.
This move by Twitter is seen as an attempt to keep up with other social media platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, which already offer similar subscription services.
The new feature is expected to benefit content creators, who will now have a new avenue to monetize their content. In addition, it will give users more control over the type of content they receive, as they will now have the option to pay for premium content from their favorite creators.
Since taking over in a $44 billion deal, Musk has been exploring various monetization options to increase the company revenue and has swiftly moved through a number of product and organizational changes. The company rolled out a Twitter-verified blue tick as a paid service and shrunk the employee base by about 80 percent, and this latest move is part of its efforts to diversify its revenue streams. The company has faced criticism in the past for not doing enough to support content creators on its platform, and this move is seen as a step in the right direction.
The social media firm was now “roughly breaking even”, Musk said in a Twitter Spaces interview on Wednesday.
Elon Musk has offered the social-media company’s employees stock grants at a valuation of nearly $20 billion, the Information reported last month, citing a person familiar with an email Musk sent to Twitter staff.
The reported valuation is less than half of the $44 billion that Musk paid to acquire the social media platform, pointing to a drop in Twitter’s value.
Elon Musk’s announcement that Twitter will not take a cut of the revenue for the first 12 months is likely to encourage more users to try out the new feature. It remains to be seen whether this will be a successful move for Twitter in the long run, but for now, it is clear that the company is making efforts to keep up with the competition and support content creators on its platform.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ emailed request for comment.
