Tech

Twitter Launches First Paid Subscription Service

Published

4 years ago

June 3, 2021

Micro-blogging platform, Twitter announced on Thursday the launch of Twitter Blue, the company’s first subscription service designed for power users willing to pay a monthly fee for exclusive features..

This is the company’s first attempt at a subscription business model and could diversify Twitter’s revenue streams.

According to the company’s first-quarter earnings report, advertising makes up more than 86% of Twitter’s revenue.

Shares of Twitter were up around 2% on Thursday morning.

The service is rolling out to users in Canada and Australia respectively for $3.49 and $4.49 in local currencies per month. The company did not say when Twitter Blue will become available for tweeps in the United States.

The social media company set goals earlier this year to accelerate the speed at which it launches new products.

It hopes to reach 315 million monetisable daily active users by the end of 2023 and double its annual revenue to $7.5 billion by the end of 2023.

Twitter Blue users will get an Undo Tweet feature that allows them to set a customisable timer of up to 30 seconds to take back a tweet if it needs to be fixed. The feature is not quite an edit button, a feature often requested by users, but it will allow subscribers to preview what their tweets look like and adjust them before they’re published.

Other features include the ability to bookmark folders so users can organise tweets they save; a Reader Mode that makes it easier to read long threads; the option to customize the Twitter app icons on their phones; access to colour themes for the Twitter app and dedicated customer support.