Here’s another element in Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter 2.0’ push – this time, it’s re-launching its creator subscription program, which will provide a means for users to monetize their Tweets and further build business in the app. The new ‘Subscriptions’ program is basically the renaming of its ‘Super Follows’ initiative, for which Twitter’s also reducing the entry requirements, which will allow more users to sign-up and begin earning a profit for their content.
Re-Countdown
The program will enable Twitter users to charge subscribers for exclusive Tweets, subscriber-only Spaces, special badges on their Tweets to display their affiliation, and a Subscriber-only Tweet tab on creator profiles:
“Navigate to the profile of the person you Subscribe to, and select their Subscription Tweets tab. This tab lets you see all of someone’s Subscription Tweets in one place, and you’ll have access to it for as long as you’re Subscribed.”
In Super Follows’ first iteration, users needed to have at least 10k followers to qualify for the program, but now, Twitter has reduced that figure to just 500. However, different elements of its documentation still ist the 10k limit. It does seem like more users can now access the option, and at a significantly lower audience requirement, that’ll open up more monetization to million more Twitter users.
On a side note, users must have also Tweeted at least 25 times during the last 30 days, and of course, be of legal age (18). Currently, US users are the only ones who can monetize via the program, though global users can sign up to be a subscriber. Creators will have the option to charge either $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month for access to their exclusive elements, with all revenue being passed on to creators for the first year.
Musk has identified creator monetization as a key element in his platform revamp, with the view being that providing more ways for users to make money in the app, will keep them more aligned to Twitter, and posting more often. Twitter has already implemented longer video uploads, along with higher Tweet character limits, and Musk views that these elements will keep users posting their content on third-party sites, housing everything on Twitter instead.
It’ll take some fairly large behavioral shifts to get Twitter users more aligned with long-form content in the app, there’s simply more on offer for less effort on other platforms. It isn’t like that first year will also have 100% of the revenue straight to creators – Twitter will, of course, take a yet-to-be-defined cut from that.
The Wrap
While it’ll reduce the company’s reliance on ad dollars, it just doesn’t seem all that interesting, especially compared to what you can achieve for the same level of effort on other platforms. Twitter has tried some of these initiatives before and failed with most of them, but perhaps this time will be different. It’s just very difficult to imagine that the majority of people would be willing to pay for Tweets. It may incentivize the activity of much bigger stars and creators on Twitter, but macro-wise, it’s still not a “alright, I’m in’ formula.
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