Twitter Launches User Content Subscriptions; Elon Musk Says Platform Won’t Take Cut for 12 Months

Twitter-owner Elon Musk said on Thursday users of the social media platform will be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content, including long-form text and hours-long video.

Users offering the subscription, a feature they can access through the “Monetization” tab in settings, will get all the money subscribers pay apart from the charges platforms such as Android and iOS levy. Twitter will not take a cut for the first 12 months.

“That’s 70 percent for subscriptions on iOS & Android (they charge 30 percent) and ~92 percent on web (could be better, depending on payment processor),” Musk said in a tweet, adding Twitter will also help promote the creators’ work and maximize earnings.

Google rejected Musk’s claim in an email to Reuters and said it had lowered the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play to 15 percent from 30 percent in 2022.

Musk has been bringing in changes to boost revenue at Twitter after the social media platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run up to his on-again-off-again acquisition that closed in October.

Since taking over, Musk has swiftly moved through a number of product and organizational changes. The company rolled out Twitter-verified blue tick as a paid service and shrunk the employee-base by about 80 percent.

The social media firm was now “roughly breaking even”, Musk said in a Twitter Spaces interview on Wednesday.

Elon Musk has offered the social-media company’s employees stock grants at a valuation of nearly $20 billion (roughly Rs. 1,64,600 crore), the Information reported last month, citing a person familiar with an email Musk sent to Twitter staff.

The reported valuation is less than half of the $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,62,100 crore) that Musk paid to acquire the social media platform, pointing to a drop in Twitter’s value.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ emailed request for a comment.

© Thomson Reuters 2023