Twitter considers subscription fee: the 5 euros that can change everything

Paid Twitter arrives. Twitter needed a change. But not a facelift. A cleaning of functions that would make it a more useful tool than it is now. We are talking about the Twitter that informs and facilitates debate. The social network used by personalities, governments and companies to launch messages in a useful and quick way. The information tool where large and small media outlets are present. The microblogging social network where you can find interesting threads about architecture or recipes. That's what Twitter is and that's how it stays. Even if the company itself has strongly embraced censorship and suspends the accounts of those users who think differently. That's the bad thing about going to extremes when one extreme is seen as better than the other. 

For 5 euros a month, Twitter users can access exclusive content from the accounts they follow. Videos, graphics, their own tweets or whatever they see fit to offer their premium followers for that amount of money. On the one hand, the follower must make a single monthly payment of 5 euros to unlock this content. On the other hand, the account can activate the monetisation of its profile and prepare that differentiating element that makes it interesting to follow. And, finally, Twitter earns money with part of this fee because advertising for individuals has not managed to boom in the same way as it does on Facebook or Instagram. 

Twitter copies this line of business directly from Twitch. The video social network allows users to pay to follow certain profiles to watch their live streams. Content creators raise the level of their product to be able to compete with the rest and earn more revenue. Supply and demand in its "social media" version.

Interest groups are also coming to Twitter. This idea has long been implemented on Facebook with Groups. Interest pages where users share ideas, news, get-togethers... on a specific topic. Something similar happens on Instagram. Users can follow a hashtag, a trend, on a specific topic to see everything that is published on #NBA, for example. Something similar has been activated on Twitter, although it is not entirely useful if the corresponding hashtags are not used when content is published. 

This change will allow Twitter to further segment its audience and drive Super Follow business through its social network. New registrations, more revenue and satisfied customers because they find what they need on Twitter. Big business. 

This is the most controversial feature to come to Twitter. A mode that, when activated, cleans up user activity by getting rid of accounts that may be displaying abusive content or violent responses. Twitter says the automatic blocking occurs for a total of seven days, after which interactions with that person are re-displayed. This is an open door to censorship and limiting the freedom of expression that the social network has been doing with controversial profiles, but not skirting the law. Twitter did not like Donald Trump's tweets about vaccines, the coronavirus or the assault on the Capitol and decided to suspend his account for life. 

In defence of this function, it must be said that Twitter has become hell for many popular profiles. Politicians, actors, sportsmen... who suffer disproportionate harassment because of the way they think or work. Humiliations, insults and threats that they would do well to silence, even for life. 

Twitter also sends newsletters after the purchase of Revue, the newsletter platform with which it seeks to monetise content. Users can create their own newsletters and send them to their audience in a few simple steps. The process swallows up the complex framework of other websites such as Mailchimp and puts the media sector at a crossroads as to what to do on Twitter. 

All these new features that Twitter is launching bring it closer to being the perfect platform for the media. A revitalisation of its timeline that sweeps away all the rude and intransigent trash and leaves space for information and valuable content. Media websites switch to paywalls in exchange for reports, interviews or interesting and different information. Media that are unable or unwilling to switch to paywalls on their websites can always earn extra revenue from Twitter if they are sufficiently original in their premium content. The rest of the creators will have to raise the level of their contributions to earn money. Because sometimes money changes everything for the better.