Twitter: Users should soon be able to earn money on Twitter

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Ball pit at a network conference: Some users are real stars on Twitter

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

From Patreon to Twitch, from Substack to OnlyFans: Many online platforms now also allow individuals to make subscription offers to their followers.

For a monthly price there is then, for example, access to exclusive videos, a newsletter or special chat functions.

In the future, Twitter also wants to get involved in that fan subscription world, with a function called »Super Follows«.

It should enable users of the short message service to financially support the authors of their favorite content.

According to Twitter's vision, anyone who pays for “Super Follows” should, for example, receive a “Supporter Badge”, a kind of fan badge, as well as access to exclusive content from the subscription provider.

However, it is still unclear when exactly the function will be introduced.

The platform providers usually earn money from such fan subscriptions in the form of a fee.

In addition to the "Super Follows", Twitter also presented other planned functions on Thursday.

In new “communities”, for example, which apparently represent a counterpart to Facebook's groups, users should be able to get together according to their interests.

In addition, Twitter wants to give its users the opportunity to try it out with its "Safety Mode" to automatically hide accounts that are spreading spam.

Twitter promises more annual sales

Twitter currently appears to be in an experimentation phase as to where its service is headed.

In the past few months, the company had already introduced several innovations such as audio panel discussions under the name "Spaces" and messages that disappeared after 24 hours under the name "Fleets".

The current announcements were made by Twitter at an event with investors.

The service also promised to double its annual revenue to $ 7.5 billion by the end of 2023.

The number of daily users that the service reaches with its advertising is expected to increase from 192 million to 315 million by then.

The goals were well received on the stock exchange: The Twitter share closed on Thursday with a plus of 3.71 percent.

Last year Twitter had increased sales by 7.5 percent to 3.7 billion dollars.

Twitter generates almost all of its revenue from advertising.

For example, advertisers have the option of tweets with product advertising for money in users' timelines.

According to media reports, people on Twitter are also thinking about subscription business models beyond the »super follow«.

A paid version of the Tweetdeck app, which is geared towards professional users, is therefore conceivable.

When presenting its current quarterly figures, Twitter had already emphasized that the banishment of ex-US President Donald Trump from the platform at the beginning of January did not slow growth.

This was previously feared as Trump was one of the most famous Twitter users with around 80 million followers.

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mbö / dpa