FILE- This April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Twitter icon on a mobile phone, in Philadelphia. Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money — both for itself and for its most prolific users, whether those are businesses, celebrities or regular people. In an investor presentation Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, the social media company announced a new feature called “Super Follows.” (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Twitter is branching out from advertising to find more ways to make money — both for itself and for its most prolific users, whether those are businesses, celebrities or regular people.
In an investor presentation Thursday, the social media company announced a new feature called “Super Follows,” which will let users charge for extra, exclusive material not shown to their regular followers. This can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts. Users would pay a monthly subscription fee to access the extra content.
Twitter users — and the company's investors — have long been asking it to launch a subscription-based model. This as a growing number of internet creators and influencers use tools like Patreon, Substack and OnlyFans to make money from their online popularity.
The subscriptions will also allow Twitter to tap into a broader range of revenue sources in a world where online advertising is dominated by a Facebook-Google duopoly. Twitter did not detail what percentage of the revenue it would share with celebrities and others who sign up paying subscribers.
“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," the company said in a statement.
Super Follows is not available yet but Twitter says it will have “more to share" in the coming months. Another coming product, “Revue,” will let people publish paid or free newsletters to their audience. There's also “Twitter Spaces,” a Clubhouse competitor that lets users participate in audio chats. It is currently in private beta testing, which means it's not yet available to the general Twitter audience.
The San Francisco-based company also said its revenue goal for 2023 is more than $7.5 billion, more than double its 2020 revenue of $3.7 billion.
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7 Entertainment Stocks That Are Still Delighting Investors2020 has created a real-life movie script that many production companies could have only dreamed of. But that dream has been a nightmare for many of the world’s leading entertainment stocks. Movie theaters and live entertainment venues remain shut down. The words “pent-up demand” have never resonated more. Consumers are desperate for ways to be entertained.
That may make it an odd time to consider looking at entertainment stocks. But that would be a mistake. In fact, some entertainment stocks have been among the biggest pandemic winners. This is a trend that is likely to continue as the holidays arrive. The phrase “home for the holidays” is likely to have a new meaning this year. That means consumers will still be looking for ways to be entertained. And now is the time for you to prepare your portfolio for that move.
To be clear, the novel coronavirus was not due to poor management from any company. And you can bet that in the future, many companies will leave some room in their balance sheet for future “acts of God.” But in the meantime, some entertainment stocks have been pandemic winners. And that means they will likely continue to be winners as long as the pandemic lingers.
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