Your #content will definitely be worth every penny.
During a Thursday investor call, Twitter announced a plan to let users charge followers for access to “exclusive content.” Dubbed “Super Follow,” the service will bring an element of Patreon-like monetary support to a social-media ecosystem that up until now has largely been fueled by the social capital of likes and retweets.
While the final details may change, the example shown during Thursday’s call included a $4.99-per-month subscription plan that comes with “subscriber-only newsletters,” a “supporter badge,” “community access,” and other perceived perks.
Another example shows a tweet labeled “Super Followers” with the note “Only Super Followers can view and reply.”
“$4,99/month – Cancel anytime”: Twitter arbeitet an einer “Super Follow”-Funktion, mit der man direkt auf der Plattform Geld verdienen kann. Hier sind die ersten Screenshots, via @TwitterIR: pic.twitter.com/hPiq27Ov5U
— Martin Hoffmann (@martinhoffmann) February 25, 2021
Notably, it’s not yet clear when Super Follow will launch, or if everyone will have access to it when it does. We asked Twitter those questions over email, but the company was unwilling to get into specifics.
“Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivize them to continue creating content that their audience loves,” explained a spokesperson. “Super Follows is not available yet, but we’ll have more to share in the coming months.”
Twitter was willing, however, to go into more detail about the broader thinking behind the Super Follow push.
“Our purpose is to serve the public conversation,” wrote the spokesperson. “As a part of that work, we are examining and rethinking the incentives of our service — the behaviors that our product features encourage and discourage as people participate in conversation on Twitter.”
SEE ALSO: Twitter is building a ‘subscription platform,’ and paying for tweets might be a thing
Something like Super Follow appears to have been in the works at Twitter for some time. In July of 2020, Twitter posted a job listing that noted “We are building a subscription platform[.]” At the time, Twitter declined to elaborate on its plans.
We now know those plans involved working to get you paid for all your assuredly fire content.