Twitter will allow creators on the platform to monetize their content with its new Subscription feature, according to tweets from Elon Musk.
In a recent Twitter thread, Musk disclosed the new feature, a rebrand of the existing Super Follows that Twitter introduced in 2021.
Apply to offer your followers subscriptions of any material, from longform text to hours long video!
Just tap on “Monetization” in settings.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2023
However, Subscriptions come with the extra perk of allowing users to post anything ranging from long-form texts to hours-long videos. As Musk explained, users can opt for this feature by clicking “Monetization” in settings.
More details on the feature are available in the Twitter Help Center, including the costs. Creators can charge subscribers $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month.
Benefits for Twitter subscribers
The perks for subscribers include the subscriber badge, exclusive tweets, and subscriber-only spaces.
Presently, only US residents can apply for Subscriptions and must meet the eligibility requirements. These include a minimum age of 18, at least 10k followers, tweeted at least 25 times in the last 30 days, etc.
Twitter has also created a waitlist for those who are not yet eligible but wish to access the feature.
To sweeten the deal for creators, the company plans to give all the money made from Subscriptions to creators over the next 12 months. This means that once payment processors remove their cut of the subscription fees, creators will get the rest.
The fees will drop to 15% from the second year, with a promise to add extra depending on the volume.
“We will also help promote your work. Our goal is to maximize creator prosperity. At any point, you can leave our platform and take your work with you. Easy in, easy out,” Musk said.
Twitter aims to generate more income
The feature is part of efforts by the company to generate more revenue and gain more market share among social media platforms. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk in October 2022, Twitter has been actively looking for ways to raise revenue.
Musk introduced Twitter Blue subscriptions that allow users to pay for the blue tick. The feature attracted controversy, especially after Musk announced that everyone – including celebrities and public figures – must now pay for the blue tick.
Stocks and cryptocurrency trading platform eToro also announced a partnership with Twitter that will make it possible to buy stocks and digital assets directly on the social media platform.
With platforms like TikTok that focus on user-generated content seeing more ad spend, social media venues that depend on ad revenue are taking a page from the ByteDance-owned company’s playbook.
TikTok generated about $11 billion in ad revenue in 2022 and is projected to make $18.6 billion this year. By comparison, Twitter ad revenue is projected to decrease by 28% this year to $2.98 billion.
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