SAN FRANSICO – Twitter has announced a pair of upcoming features to their app – users will now have the ability to create and join groups based on their social interests, and content creators will be able to ‘charge’ their followers for additional content.
The payment feature known as ‘Super Follows’ will gain access to bonus tweets, community groups or even a badge to indicate support. In a mockup screenshot, Twitter shared an example user who was charged $4.99 per month to receive a series of perks. Twitter sees it as a way to let creators and publishers get paid directly by their fans.
In recent years, direct payments have become a necessity for content creators. Patreon has been hugely successful and many other platforms including Facebook, YouTube and even GitHub have launched features where fans can pay directly to their stars.
It is evident Twitter will take a cut, increasing its revenue stream, but the amount has not yet been announced. Twitter announced a new feature ‘Communities’, that seems similar to Facebook’s groups. There is no timeline declared yet when either of the features will be launched. Twitter listed them as “what’s next” for its platform during a presentation for analysts and investors.
