Audio By Carbonatix
Twitter announced a pair of big upcoming features today: the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content, and the ability to create and join groups based around specific interests.
They’re two of the more substantial changes to Twitter in a while, but they also fit snugly into models that have been popular and successful on other social platforms.
The payment feature, called Super Follows, will allow Twitter users to charge followers and give them access to extra content. That could be bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support. In a mockup screenshot, Twitter showed an example where a user charges $4.99 per month to receive a series of perks. Twitter sees it as a way to let creators and publishers get paid directly by their fans.
Direct payment tools have become increasingly important for creators in particular in recent years. Patreon has been hugely successful, and other platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and even GitHub have all launched direct creator payment features. Twitter will presumably take a cut — the company has been hinting at subscriptions features that would offer it a new source of revenue — though it doesn’t appear to have said yet what that fee will be.
Twitter also announced a new feature called Communities, which appear to be its take on something like Facebook Groups. People can create and join groups around specific interests — like cats or plants, Twitter suggests — allowing them to see more tweets focused on those topics. Groups have been a huge success for Facebook (and a huge moderation problem, too), and they could be a particularly helpful tool on Twitter, since the service’s open-ended nature can make it difficult for new users to get started on the platform.
There’s no timeline yet for when either of these features will launch. Twitter listed them as “what’s next” for its platform during a presentation for analysts and investors this afternoon.
The DJI Mavic mini 2 is the best drone under $500. DJI’s first Mavic Mini drone was clearly made for people making their first step into the drone world. But its successor, the Mini 2 which now supports OcuSync and has an improved camera makes a very strong argument for even more experienced pilots and content creators.
Latest Stories
-
Friends of Bridget Bonnie Marks her 35th birthday with donation to Kasseh Model Health Centre
18 minutes -
Landfilling waste management creates no value, it’s an economic waste
45 minutes -
Photos: Speaker Bagbin Commissions MPs constituency office under parliamentary decentralisation programme
1 hour -
Black Stars technical advisor Winfried Schäfer sacked as GFA shakes up backroom staff
1 hour -
Wenchi water project almost complete, critical to gov’t agenda – GWL MD
1 hour -
Anti-LGBTQ+ bill not part of government’s legislative agenda – Inusah Fuseini
1 hour -
Anti-LGBTQ Bill: Forget the rumour mongers, I’m a man of action, and will pass the bill – Speaker
2 hours -
Women and children among those killed in Sudanese army shelling of wedding celebration
2 hours -
President Mahama is not sincere with Ghanaians on LGBTQ bill matter – Hassan Tampuli
3 hours -
Gov’t to establish Prison Industrial Hub to equip inmates with income-generating skills – Prison Service boss
3 hours -
Alhassan Tampuli donates cement, roofing sheets to support storm victims in Gushegu
3 hours -
Alhassan Tampuli appeals for urgent support for storm victims in Gushegu
3 hours -
The hypocrisy must stop; pass Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill now – Alhassan Tampuli to Mahama
3 hours -
Imprisonment should be rehabilitative, not punitive – Ghana Prisons boss at UNGA
3 hours -
Ga Adangbe traditional priests petition Mahama over McDan aviation licence revocation
4 hours