In Twitter's latest call for one-up competitors, from Clubhouse to Patreon, the company announced today that it will begin rolling out apps for Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces.
Subscribe With Paid Content
Twitter first teased the Super Follow feature during its Analyst Day event in February. Super Follows allows creators on Twitter to generate monthly income by offering paid barred content to followers who subscribe to them for $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99 per month. To be eligible, users over the age of 18 must have 10,000 followers and at least 25 tweets in the last 30 days.
Commission Fees Paid To Twitter
Twitter will only take 3% of creators' revenue after in-app purchases — but, on the App Store and Google Play, the cost of in-app purchases is 30%, meaning that creators will take home about two-thirds of what they make. followers pay. Once they exceed $50,000 of lifetime revenue on Twitter, the app will take “20% of future revenue after fees.” When combined with 30% in-app purchase fees, it leaves content creators with about half of their followers' payouts.
Meanwhile, Patreon only takes between 5% and 12% of the creator's revenue (it skips the in-app purchase fee since it is a web-based platform). While creators who primarily engage with their audience on Twitter may benefit from having a way to monetize without directing followers to other apps, the payout difference here is stark. Creators may not abandon the existing Patreon system for Super Follows, but at the very least, it can offer an additional revenue stream.
“Our goal is to increase the people who drive conversations on Twitter and help them earn money,” said senior product manager Esther Crawford. "We're updating our revenue-sharing cut after spending more time thinking about how we can support the voices that are emerging on Twitter."
Ticketed Spaces
Ticketed Spaces seems more promising, as Clubhouse, Spotify Greenroom, and other competitors don't yet offer a similar option (Discord is testing ticketed audio events on the Stage Discovery portal, but it's not out yet).
Through Ticketed Spaces, users can set their ticket price anywhere between $1 and $999. Creators can also limit how many tickets are sold, which might prompt someone to actually use the $999 ticket price for a one-on-one conversation with a celebrity (still… gee?).
Twitter will remind attendees that a Ticket Room is in progress via push notifications and in-app. Users over the age of 18 who have hosted three Spaces in the last 30 days and have at least 1,000 followers are eligible to apply for access.
Clubhouse and Instagram have features that allow listeners to tip speakers or award badges of appreciation in the live audio room, but those apps don't yet allow advance ticket sales. Another way for top creators to make money from these apps is through the Creators Fund.
Spotify Greenroom and Clubhouse have announced plans for a Creators Fund, but it's not clear how the revenue potential compares to selling access to Ticketed Spaces on Twitter.
Many of these updates to Twitter come after activist shareholders attempted to oust CEO Jack Dorsey last year. Now, Twitter is rapidly adding new features and acquiring companies like Revue (a newsletter platform), Ueno (a creative agency) and Breaker (a social podcasting platform).
Apps for using Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces are only available on mobile (so, without avoiding in-app purchase fees) and for people in the US Currently, only iOS users can apply for Super Follows, but the Ticketed Spaces app is available on both iOS and iOS.
Android. Twitter added a new Monetization button to the sidebar in the app, where users navigate to see if they're eligible to sign up to be part of a test group for this feature. These features will roll out more widely in the coming months.
