Twitter is considering launching a series of subscriptions, including paid access to TweetDeck. Bloomberg reports this with reference to its sources.
TweetDeck is a popular alternative to the main Twitter site and app that allows users to manage multiple accounts and organize content into easy-to-read vertical feeds.
Twitter is also exploring options such as launching paid features such as “Undo Submit” buttons or additional profile customization options.
Another idea is exclusive content available by subscription, for which users will pay authors.
All of these ideas are designed to reduce the service’s dependence on advertising, which currently accounts for the lion’s share of its revenue, states SearchEngines. Competing ad businesses with Facebook and Snapchat are growing faster than Twitter, and the company is forced to look for opportunities to diversify its revenues.
At the same time, launching a series of subscriptions with different functionalities will definitely be a bold move, given that most social networks offer their services free of charge to maximize growth.
In a comment to Bloomberg, Twitter’s head of profitable products, Bruce Falck, confirmed that the company plans to improve its revenue structure and possibly add paid subscriptions to it. At the same time, he noted that all plans are still at a “very early stage of study.”
“We do not expect any meaningful revenue related to these opportunities in 2021,” he added.
NIX Solutions reminds that Twitter had already considered introducing payments for premium TweetDeck features in 2017, but later dropped those plans.
As for paid subscriptions, they were mentioned in the company’s last two conference calls.