Twitter considering subscription fees to ensure ‘revenue durability’

Twitter is considering adding subscriptions fees for some features as the company looks to diversify its revenue beyond ads, a company official confirmed Monday. 

“Increasing revenue durability is our top company objective. You will see us continue to research and experiment with ways to further diversify our revenue beyond ads in 2021 and beyond,” Twitter’s revenue product lead, Bruce Falck, said in a statement. 

“These may include subscriptions and other approaches that will give people and businesses of all sizes on Twitter access to unique features and enhanced opportunities for content creation, discovery, and engagement,” Falck added. 

Falck said the company is still in “very early exploration” and doesn’t expect to see any “meaningful revenue” attributable to these features this year, and Twitter’s main focus is still on growing ads business. 

Twitter did not share any further details on subscription plans it is considering, but Bloomberg reported Monday that the company is weighing plans to possibly add features for users to pay people they follow for exclusive content. 

Twitter is also considering additional revenue through charging for services like TweetDeck or other advanced features, such as “undo send” or profile-customization options, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources. 

Twitter may share more of its plans for diversifying revenue during its call with investors on Tuesday about fourth quarter earnings.