Twitter is working on a paid subscription service for users to monetise their audience.
During an Analyst event on February 25th, the platform revealed ‘Super Follow,’ a function of the app for users to get exclusive content, newsletters, deals & discounts, and community access from creators for $4.99USD/month with the option to “cancel anytime.”
Super Follow is part of Twitter’s strategy to keep users engaged on the platform, as there was previously no way to monetise audiences.
During the same event, Twitter also shared its plans for ‘Communities,’ the app’s version of Facebook groups, as well as ‘Safety Mode’ which will automatically block users who violate terms and conditions.
Creators will have the ability to set up Community groups for their paid Super Followers to join in discourse.
Subscription-based paid platforms have become increasingly popular as social media’s landscape has evolved. Audiences that were once grateful for free content across platforms like YouTube, Instagram and podcasts have now come to expect it. An oversaturated market mixed with the ability to have instantaneous information at our fingertips has fostered entitled consumers who expect high-quality content at essentially no cost. This cultural shift has made it difficult for creators to build a following that they can monetise— they need to be creating enough content to satisfy audience expectations (which in turn satisfies algorithms) before they can monetise, but need to monetise before they can commit to spending enough time and resources creating said content.
Platforms such as Patreon, OnlyFans, and now possibly Super Follow, give users the ability to take control of their own earnings. It’s this control that appeals to viral stars who previously relied on ad revenue from increasingly unreliable algorithms to make a living.
The possible downside to Super Follow has been noted by several users. As a news-driven platform, Twitter’s active engagement relies on the ability to source information instantaneously in real-time. However, If journalists and outlets put their tweets behind a pay-wall, it could be detrimental to Twitter as a news source.
A roll-out date for Super Follow has not been announced at the time of publication.