Twitter may launch premium service for subscribers

8 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

Twitter is considering whether to build a premium version of its popular Tweetdeck interface aimed at professionals, the company said on Thursday, raising the possibility that it could collect subscription fees from some users for the first time.
The way that this subscription format would manifest would be in the form of a premium version of its popular Tweetdeck service, which is a popular app and website that the firm bought six years ago. It allows users to run multiple accounts out of the one interface, schedule tweets and generally have greater control over their Twitter experiences. 

Like most other social media companies, Twitter since its founding 11 years ago has focused on building a huge user base for a free service supported by advertising. Last month it reported it had 319 million users worldwide.

While other social media services have been growing steadily over the past year, with Snapchat pulling in huge numbers and Instagram becoming the platform of choice for advertisers and influencers Twitter has fallen by the wayside.

Adding a premium membership scheme with audience growing features that are relevant to businesses and social media influencers could give Twitter a way to hold on to a good chunk of its users and add a new stream of income outside of advertising revenue.

Nothing has been confirmed just yet but Twitter is apparently surveying a small number of its users to gauge their interest in the move, stating: “We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people’s Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we're exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals.”

And the company described how the new tool would work. "This premium tool set will provide valuable viewing, posting, and signaling tools like alerts, trends and activity analysis, advanced analytics, and composing and posting tools all in one customizable dashboard,” the note said.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Twitter posted the slowest revenue growth since it went public four years earlier, and revenue from advertising fell year-over-year. The company also said that advertising revenue growth would continue to lag user growth during 2017.