Twitter Subscriptions: Social Media app rebrands from ‘Super Follows’
Twitter is renaming its Super Follows feature, which allows you to subscribe to individual users for access to exclusive content, to simply Subscriptions. Founder and CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, posted on Thursday about the new feature, which can be accessed through the Monetization section of the settings.
According to what we can tell, many features of Super Follows have been carried over to the rebranded Subscriptions. Subscribers get access to things like exclusive tweets, subscriber-only Spaces, and special subscriber badges when they pay a subscription fee.
Down the line, Twitter says that it hopes to include “newsletters and other Twitter features as potential bonus content.”
That line about newsletters makes this Subscriptions push seem like a direct shot against the newsletter platform Substack. It announced its own Twitter-like “Notes” feature last week. Shortly after, Twitter throttled Substack links and even limited engagement with Substack’s Twitter account, though those restrictions have been walked back.
For the next 12 months, Twitter will keep none of the money.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2023
You will receive whatever money we receive, so that’s 70% for subscriptions on iOS & Android (they charge 30%) and ~92% on web (could be better, depending on payment processor).
After first year, iOS & Android fees…
Seeing Twitter talk about newsletters when it shut down its own Revue newsletter tool just three months ago is also hilarious.
There appear to be a few of us here at The Verge who can apply to use Subscriptions – if we tweet more. We found initial details by clicking the three-dot menu, then the “Professional Tools” dropdown, and then “Monetization.”
There is also a box for “Subscriptions” that briefly describes what’s available via subscriptions, shows you how much you might make per month, and lets you know if you’re eligible.
You can also check your eligibility for subscriptions through the Subscriptions menu. You must have at least 500 followers, 25 tweets in the past 30 days, and be at least 18 years old.
On a support page, the company lists more detailed requirements, such as having at least 10,000 active followers.
You can offer monthly subscriptions at $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99, according to Twitter. Users in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia can currently buy subscriptions on iOS, Android, and Twitter’s website, but you cannot view subscriber-only content online.
When a creator makes less than $50,000 in lifetime earnings, Twitter says they can earn up to 97 percent of revenue. Once they make more than $50,000, they can earn up to 80 percent. For the next 12 months, Twitter won’t keep any money creators earn through subscriptions.
Musk says Android charges 30 percent on subscriptions the first year and 15 percent afterward, but Google’s Google Play “Service fees” page states the company charges 15 percent on subscriptions.
The company’s press email autoresponded with an emoji of a poop when we asked whether creators would receive the additional 15 percent.
Musk’s decision to release what essentially appears to be a re-skin of Super Follows makes sense since that is probably a lot easier than following through on the promises he made to creators.
He originally stated that Twitter would share ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads in February, yet that hasn’t happened. Additionally, he has hinted at creating a creator fund and providing them with “higher compensation” for written and video content.
