If there were only a handful of winners in the COVID-19 derby ring, Twitter would undoubtedly take the podium along with other social networking sets. In April and June this year, the service hit 186 monetizable daily active users – annually, an increase of some 34%. However, the social media network continues to struggle to draw profit, with an operating loss of $124 million USD during the same fiscal quarter.
Suprised? Sadly, Twitter has long fought revenue problems, and although the company does have its own suite of advertisement services, the firm has yet to conclusively prove it can generate successful monetization strategies and convince advertisers that its platform is worthy when thrown up against the likes of Facebook.
In a new tweet directly from the horse’s mouth, the service is now testing ‘subscriptions’ in a new monetization bid – though the platform stopped short of mentioning what exactly users could subscribe to in the near future. While the firm may emulate YouTube’s Premium subscription service (which you’ve likely seen thanks to infuriatingly commonplace ads), the company might instead offer premium content or news bundles similarly to how Apple has constructed Apple News.
We’re also in early stages of exploring add’l potential revenue products that complement our advertising business, which may include subscriptions & others. It is very early; we do not expect any revenue against these in 2020. $TWTR
— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) July 23, 2020
Interestingly, in a quip to CNN, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey added that users will ‘likely see some tests this year’ of different monetization approaches, though any changes would need to be ‘complimentary to [Twitter’s] advertising business.
Given the suggested overlap, potential remains for fans to subscribe to premium content delivered from their favourite accounts – though that’s purely conjecture.
What are your thoughts? Would you be interested in subscribing to Twitter to remove ads, or paying for premium content? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
