Twitter introduces paid subscriptions to its users in Canada and Australia
Twitter launched on Thursday paid subscription offers to its users in Canada and Australia who want to access practical features, as part of its new strategy through which it seeks to provide a variety of income sources for it other than advertising.
The social platform said in a statement that it hopes "through this initial stage to gain a better understanding of what can make" users' experience on the network "more special and more dynamic."
For about $3 a month, subscribers will have bookmarks to store their favorite tweets in categories, a more convenient “read” and a “cancel” button to see their tweets before the final transmission, so they can edit them if they want.
"We often hear that we don't always provide features that meet user needs," Twitter said in its statement, promising that "that will change."
The San Francisco-based company plans to add other features to subscribers, but assured that the free Twitter service "will never go away."
In early May, Twitter acquired the Scroll application, which is dedicated to reading news without ads, with the aim of enhancing the paid subscription feature that it had begun to adopt.
"Imagine as Twitter subscribers having access to advanced features or being able to easily read your favorite newspaper or newsletter, knowing that a portion of your subscription will go to fund publications and writers," said Mike Park.
Twitter is struggling to find ways to generate revenue without compromising the smooth use of its messaging platform.
The American group published lower-than-expected results at the end of last April.
The number of daily revenue-generating users of the network (those who saw at least one ad on a given day) reached 199 million in the first quarter, a million subscribers less than analysts' expectations.
The network is also facing difficulty in expanding its core audience, made up of celebrities, journalists, and political leaders, while continuing to increase investments to combat disinformation and problematic content in order to preserve as much as possible the integrity of political debates and conversations.
AFP
