Twitter has hinted before that they’ll soon start using a subscription model of business as revenue from ads and data declines.
Earlier this month(It feels like a couple of months tbqh), Twitter posted new job openings under a new team codenamed Gryphon, where they are building a subscription platform, one that can be reused by other teams in the future.
People tweeted their opinions.
Looking forward to unveiling my premium tweets for subscribers only which will be demonstrably more valuable/libellous https://t.co/rBhPPDxkdC
— Janine Gibson (@janinegibson) July 8, 2020
As predicted by @profgalloway (subscription, not libellous @janinegibson tweets) https://t.co/0c49jwQLKz
— Ed Vaizey (@edvaizey) July 8, 2020
I will pay twitter to delete itself
— Megan Farokhmanesh (@Megan_Nicolett) July 8, 2020
It now looks like this is actually happening.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told analysts in an investor call meeting that they will likely see some tests this year as they are considering a subscription model following declining revenue from its advertising business and licensed Twitter data.
Jack went ahead to confirm that the giant social media network is seeking to diversify its sources of revenue and that they are in the very early phases of exploring.
We're also in early stages of exploring add'l potential revenue products that complement our advertising business, which may include subscriptions & others. It is very early; we do not expect any revenue against these in 2020. $TWTR
— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) July 23, 2020
“We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business. We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls … we think is complementary,” he added.
Twitter had had a tough week following the massive hack of prominent and verified users on its platform. The hackers even had access to people’s messages.
“We fell behind. We feel terrible about the security incident. Security doesn’t have an endpoint. It’s a constant iteration … We will continue to go above and beyond here as we continue to secure our systems and as we continue to work with external firms and law enforcement,” Jack said in his apology.
There is no way in hell I’m paying for this garbage site. https://t.co/smHahIi8AA
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) July 23, 2020
Are they going to add an edit feature?
Because I'd pay for an edit feature. https://t.co/kYhfdBE11R— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) July 23, 2020
Who wouldn't want to pay *gestures broadly* for this https://t.co/2SfOqR9zXn
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 23, 2020
My Twitter subscription model: Jack pays me $10 every time I draft a tweet and decide not to send it https://t.co/yr5PZ2bcfc
— G. Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris) July 23, 2020
To read this tweet, please s͟u͟b͟s͟c͟r͟i͟b͟e͟ ͟t͟o͟ ͟T͟w͟i͟t͟t͟e͟r͟ ͟P͟r͟e͟m͟i͟u͟m͟.͟ https://t.co/eeOdZ3rHu4
— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) July 23, 2020
You can’t be asking folks to pay if you can’t even keep them safe from harassment @jack https://t.co/NXzyDghXOS
— Big Dragon Stan Account (@OkSoMik) July 23, 2020
Good. I'd love to pay for the privilege of creating content for this company https://t.co/968ZDCM7Xf
— Alex Roarty (@Alex_Roarty) July 23, 2020
Here’s thinking that it’s better to subscribe for quality contents than to depend on advertisements.
If Twitter can vet users and remove bots for the sake of its subscribers, I’m totally supporting this move.
How does 5 dollars a month sounds? https://t.co/iVemwvrHIW
— Kamen (@lurino) July 23, 2020
he can't believe this website is free https://t.co/rnq4pqReWF
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) July 23, 2020