Twitter announced through a virtual event that it is planning to launch a payment-for-posts feature, called "Super Follows", whereby users will be able to pay people who follow them for their best tweets.
With Super Falls, Twitter will allow users to make money on content that will be exclusive to certain followers.
Samples of screenshots released by the company show that the payment scheme can take many forms. For example, a follower can pay a creator who follows him on Twitter a few dollars a month to access this user´s exclusive newsletter or to see private tweets available only to super followers. They may also be able to join a specific group or get a badge that shows their support for the creator.
The idea that you would pay someone for their tweets may seem far-fetched, but a Twitter spokesperson told technology website Recode, the goal is to "rethink the incentives for our service." Basically, the premise appears to be that this pay-for-job feature will help build more specific communities around specific topics.
Besides paying for posts, another change coming to Twitter is a group-like tool called Communities.
Currently we do not know much about this feature that has not arrived yet, as Twitter says more information is coming later this year, but it seems that the idea is to provide a more private and more controlled way for communities to meet together on Twitter outside the public domain of the page.
"It is still difficult to find people who share your interests in in-depth conversations and communicate with them directly," a company spokesman told Recode.
"This year, we´re making it easier for you to discover, participate in, and have conversations with communities that you share your interests," he added.
The new community feature on Twitter was announced at a virtual investor event on Thursday.
None of Twitter´s newly announced features are currently available, but the company says it will reveal more information in the coming months.
However, Thursday´s announcement is a sign that the Twitter platform wants to be more than just a public discussion space on the Internet and that the company is leaning towards smaller "communities" that are organically forming on its platform.
The arrival of the "Super Falls" and "Groups" features comes as Twitter moves to emulate the closed features available on other platforms.
At the end of last year, Twitter released Snapchat-like Fleets stories that are disappearing and only available to followers. The company is also in the midst of expanding its new Spaces tool, which are small, voice-based rooms that work like the new Clubhouse app.
Following in the footsteps of services like Substack, Twitter earlier this year bought a review email newsletter service (Revue) that integrates subscription-based newsletters directly through their public Twitter accounts.
Twitter´s recent moves also indicate that the company hopes to add more diversification to its platform, which has been a year since the platform was founded.
