Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed on an investor call that the company is exploring moving to a subscription service model (via CNN).
The platform has struggled with declining revenue in its ad business and has been criticised by industry commentators who say that Twitter should be far more profitable than it is. It reported $562 million in ad revenue for the second quarter, which is 23% down from the same quarter the previous year.
On the call Dorsey commented that, “You will likely see some tests this year” to do with subscriptions but did not disclose what this would look like. The CEO said he has “a really high bar for when we would ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter,” but that such a move was in the “very, very early phases of exploring.”
Dorsey’s words confirm what was suspected. Earlier this month Twitter posted a job listing that referred to work on an upcoming subscription service. It was reported and the job listing was amended to remove the reference.
Dorsey added that “We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business … We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls … we think is complementary.”
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Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.