In the future you may be able to customize your Twitter profile or tip your favorite influencer on the app, as the company looks to diversify its revenue stream.
In an effort to move away from advertising sales as its main source of income, Twitter is exploring a number of ways it can profit off the app with new features. Bloomberg reports that some of these potential avenues include adding subscription options, using a “tipping system,” and charging for Tweetdeck, profile customization, or extra features like “undo send.”
The “tipping system” would allow people to pay others they follow for exclusive content, similar to concepts like Patreon or OnlyFans, which users often advertised on Twitter. It’ll be interesting to see how these kinds of changes could eat into those other platforms, increase revenue streams for influencers, or allow unique Twitter creators to profit.
“These may include subscriptions and other approaches that will give people and businesses of all sizes on Twitter access to unique features and enhanced opportunities for content creation, discovery, and engagement,” Bruce Falck, the company’s revenue product lead, said in a statement.
Several teams at Twitter are reportedly in the early stages of researching different approaches to generate funds, but it’s unlikely we’ll see any of these new features this year. In 2020, $808 million of Twitter’s $936 million in Q3 revenue came from ad sales.
The news follows Twitter’s acquisition of the Revue, a newsletter publishing platform, which signaled the company’s interest in content creation and subscriptions.
“We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary. We think there is a world where commerce is complementary,” Jack Dorsey said last year. “You can imagine work around helping people manage paywalls, as well, that we believe is complementary. So that’s what we’re looking for. We have a small team who is exploring our options, obviously we’re hiring for those teams.”
