Twitter Considering Video Paywall

Good news for cammers if Twitter follows through on a feature that would give you a chance to monetize your videos by putting them behind a paywall.

As reported on by The Verge, The Washington Post nabbed an internal email from Twitter which discussed “exploring the option” and shared mockups suggesting a choice of preset prices – $1, $2, $5, or $10. Content creators would be able to attach their video to a Tweet and users would have to cough up the cash to see it.

Others who don’t want to pay, would still be able to like the video or retweet it.

The Verge article made the point that Twitter has been looking for more ways to bring in additional revenue other than advertising. As examples, they mentioned Twitter’s Super Follows feature which allows users to pay for subscriber-only content as well as their premium Twitter Blue subscription – which among other perks, lets people undo tweets.

It was further suggested by The Verge that Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter is what’s driving the scramble to come up with more revenue making opportunities so as to make his $44 billion dollar purchase price worth it.

Case and point – Musk announced a new $8 a month subscription price which verifies your account and gives you a blue checkmark next to your name just like the bigwigs. He also recently laid off a ton of workers – stating in a tweet that “unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.”

Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

Musk does seem hellbent on making Twitter lucrative and you can bet not all the changes are going to be positive – but certainly, a video paywall is a win for both the platform and creators.

Twitter is expected to launch the new update in the next two weeks.

But don’t get too excited.

The Verge also made the point that Twitter will have to quickly evaluate the “risks of charging for video content” and more specifically how they will deal with the porn industry.  A report by Twitter highlighted the fact that NSFW content makes up 13% of their users and is one of the “highest-growing topics of interest among English-speaking heavy users.”

Musk (for ease, I’m pinning everything on Musk as he’s the face of Twitter and it’s fun to pin everything on him anyhow) now knows the future of the site must include sex workers or risk losing a major chunk of subscribers and users – so the study is good news. But he also has the other problem of payment providers and advertisers likely jumping ship if he allows the adult industry to paywall their videos. So, he could also swing the other direction and not open the feature to sex workers.

Stay tuned to Twitter updates to see which way the tide turns.

Photo credit: iStock.com/hapabapa

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Alyssa Collins hails from Minnesota, where snowy days were the perfect excuse to stay warm inside and write. Over the years, she turned that joy into a career and has authored numerous articles for various publications (under pen names). Email Alyssa via alyssa@ynot.com.