Twitter Inc.’s business is strongly supported by advertising, but it has been mulling to expand revenue streams for a while. A new report from Bloomberg says the company is considering to bring paid subscriptions, again, citing people familiar with the matter.
A variety of ideas have been floated around according to the report.
The first option would be to allow users to pay accounts they follow for exclusive content. The second one, charging users for services like Tweetdeck or providing advanced features on Twitter at a fee, like “undo send” or profile customization.
It seems no solid resolution has made till now, although the company has been badly considering to offer a subscription to expand business. In Q4, Twitter In.c earned $1.29 billion in revenue, a 28 per cent increase from the Q4, 2019. Of the $1.29 billion, $1.15 billion was from advertising, nearly 90 per cent of the total revenue.
The company confirmed it’s considering lots of options in response to the report.
“Increasing revenue durability is our top company objective,” Twitter’s revenue product lead Bruce Falck told PCMag.
“You will see us continue to research and experiment with ways to further diversify our revenue beyond ads in 2021 and beyond.” He confirmed they are considering subscriptions and “other approaches” that will bring “unique features and enhanced opportunities” to businesses and people on the platform.
In the meantime, Falck, says they “are still in very early exploration” and don’t expect any meaningful revenue from these opportunities this year.
Business Expansion
Twitter has made several acquisitions since December in the name of business expansion. It recently acquired subscription-based newsletter platform Revue at an undisclosed fee.
Other acquisitions include Squad, a social video sharing app, Breaker, a podcasting company, and Ueno, a design firm.
Unlike its peers, Snapchat Inc. and Facebook, Twitter’s business has not grown massively. The company first surpassed the billion mark in quarterly revenue Q4, 2019.
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