Twitter is planning to launch a new subscription service, according to reports.
A job listing for a senior full-stack software engineer has been shared online, revealing Twitter is working on a new subscription project.
“We are a new team, codenamed Gryphon. We are building a subscription platform, one that can be reused by other teams in the future. This is a first for Twitter,” the job ad says.
“Gryphon is a team of web engineers who are closely collaborating with the Payments team and the Twitter.com team.”
Although it is a smaller platform, Twitter has struggled to monetise its audience through ad revenue in the same way Google and Facebook have.
A subscription service would serve as a way to increase the value per user.
The mysterious job ad has many wondering what exactly the subscription service could be for.
Some have suggested it could be some sort of news service, allowing users to access news content that exists behind paywalls.
Industry commentator Professor Scott Galloway last month urged the social network to move into the PR vertical with a subscription model.
“Their opportunity is to acquire distressed media properties, go vertical, and move to a subscription model. Subscription fees should be based on the number of followers,” Galloway said.
“If @kyliejenner can garner $430,000 per promoted tweet, she’ll pay $10,000 a month to maintain her revenue stream, and @karaswisher (1.3 million followers) would pay $250 a month. Verified accounts with <2,000 followers would remain free to maintain critical mass.
“The B2B market alone would be huge, as Twitter has replaced PR, news agencies, and IR firms. What firm wouldn’t pay $2,000 a month to announce their new SAAS/diet/keto/hemp product? Twitter could take a 40 per cent hit to top-line revenue over the short term, and triple their stock in the next 24 months as they move to subscription.”
This is seemingly something Twitter has already considered.
In 2017 the company issued a survey asking select users if they would pay a monthly fee for an ‘advanced Tweetdeck’, which offered rich data for certain users.
