Twitter launches way for users to charge for access to their content

California: Twitter is allowing users to charge for access to their content, “from longform text to hours-long video,” owner Elon Musk said in a post on the site Thursday.

Musk said that for the first 12 months, Twitter won’t keep any of the money users make from subscriptions. That means users will keep at least 70 per cent of their subscription revenue on mobile, after accounting for app store fees, he added. Musk didn’t elaborate on the technical aspects of the plan.

Musk, in a bid to make it possible for people to make money off their Twitter accounts, is going head-to-head with Substack, the newsletter company, with similar money-making options. Meanwhile, Substack is becoming more like Twitter. The site recently launched a Notes feature, which allows users to post on a public feed. Earlier this week Twitter temporarily disabled likes, replies and retweets if a tweet had a Substack link.

The changes may help woo more content creators onto the platform, or keep them from leaving. Although Twitter will not take a cut of users’ subscription revenue for the first 12 months, it could be a move to generate more cash in the future. Google said that for a subscription it would only take 15 per cent, whereas Apple would drop to 15 per cent from 30 per cent after the first year.

Twitter, a subsidiary of X Corp., has struggled recently with efforts to monetise its platform. Advertising, which accounted for more than 80 per cent of Twitter’s revenue, has declined by 50 per cent since Musk took over. The company is hoping to drive revenue through a premium version called Twitter Blue, but only 1 per cent of monthly users have signed up.