The bird’s social network today announced an ambitious idea that it is already working on and hopes to launch soon. This is a new feature that would allow users to fund exclusive content through a subscription system. Under the name of “Super Follow”, This Twitter initiative would have the objective of introducing a new form of financing that depends exclusively on content creators, since they could offer exclusive experiences to those who decide to give them money through subscription.
In the words of its design director, Dantley Davis, Twitter points out that “an audience-funded model, where subscribers can directly fund the content they value the most, is a lasting incentive model that aligns the interest of creators and consumers.” . In this sense, and from what is known so far, the “Super Follow” modality it would be very similar to the subscription of the streaming platform Twitch, which allows you to follow content creators and watch their steams or videos for free, but also gives them the opportunity to offer exclusive and paid broadcasts to those who want and can access.
Since its launch to the Internet world in 2006, the social network founded by Jack Dorsey has maintained an almost unchanged format. Yes, it has undergone small changes and adaptations as its developers have worked to increase its popularity. The biggest recent change was, perhaps, the length of characters allowed for “tweets”, which went from 140 to 280 back in 2017.
However, and judging by what was announced today, it seems that Twitter has decided to go out in search of new audiences. Or at least that can be deduced from the words of its CEO and leader, who was categorical in defining why the social network will make this leap in its financing model: “We can summarize it in three criticisms: we are slow, we are not innovating and they do not trust us”. Part of Jack Dorsey’s impression of the company’s present may have to do with the recent incidents in which Twitter has been implicated and accused of censorship, mainly after permanently canceling Donald Trump’s account.
But it is also true that the proliferation of new applications dedicated to communication and entertainment make the task of each social network even more difficult to distinguish itself from the rest. For example, during the last year, young women TikTok y ClubHouse they have reported having 50 and 10 million active users in the United States alone, respectively. Snapchat, for its part, far exceeds 192 million active Twitter users according to its latest report, which closed at 265 million.
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