Twitter’s consideration of user billing, including subscriptions, was also publicly announced by CEO Jack Dorsey. And new rumors have been reported that one of the official client apps, TweetDeck, may be charged.
According to Bloomberg reports, Twitter is working on making subscription products to ease its reliance on advertising. In addition to the company’s long-standing consideration, it is said to be a higher priority under the pressure of investors to spread the coronavirus infection and accelerate its growth.
Meanwhile, the Twitter internal team is investigating the subscription service including the code name “Rogue One”. In fact, it has become clear that around the summer of 2020, we were advertising jobs for the “subscription platform” and conducting surveys to find out what users wanted.
One of the ideas under consideration is related to “tips” or the ability to pay to see exclusive content provided by followers. In short, it is presumed to be a system where only paying users can view specific tweets or throw money to their favorite users.
Other billing system candidates include billing for the use of services such as TweetDeck, “cancellation of transmission”, and charging for profile customization.
One of the most not to be missed by heavy users is the charge for TweetDeck. The appealing service is that you can browse multiple feeds at the same time, be chased by several tweets, and above all, no ads are included, but it is unknown how many users will remain until you pay.
Bloomberg summarizes some of the features and services that Twitter may charge for. “It’s unfair to give users the ability to exclude themselves from targeted ads and data collection because it makes a difference in economic power,” while saying that “ad-free feeds” may be the most popular. Quoted from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Doing this puts Twitter’s business at risk.
Economic power makes a difference in usability Aside from that, it is true that Twitter’s business model currently relies on targeted advertising, and “eliminating ads by user billing” should not be interesting to advertisers. .. It seems difficult to find a place where everyone can nod, but I’d like to wait for a system that allows users who want to help Twitter to survive and pay comfortably.