Thu 11 November 2021:
Twitter’s Blue subscription service went live on Tuesday for users in the United States and New Zealand.
Since June, the social media company has been testing the subscription offering with Australian and Canadian users, but the feature is now available to all users in the United States. Twitter Blue is available for $2.99 per month on iOS, Android, and the web, according to the company.
Special features reserved for Twitter power users, such as the ability to undo a tweet or personalize the Twitter app icon, are included in the subscription offering. With the launch of Twitter Blue in the United States, users will have access to ad-free stories from over 300 American news outlets, including The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and Insider. According to a Twitter spokesperson, it does not include access to paywalled items that certain news outlets may have.
The offering is part of Twitter’s push to find new sources of revenue. In January, the company acquired Revue, a service that enables people to create newsletters, and said it would take a small percentage of subscription fees from newsletter writers. And in May, Twitter bought Scroll, a subscription company that created ad-free reading services for publishers.
“In continuing our commitment to strengthen and support publishers and a free press, a portion of the revenue from Twitter Blue subscription fees goes directly to publishers within our network,” two Twitter project managers, Sara Beykpour and Smita Gupta, wrote in a blog post. “Our goal is to help each publishing partner make 50% more per person than they would’ve made from serving ads to that person.”
On Tuesday, Twitter introduced two new features for Twitter Blue users, including the ability to upload videos up to ten minutes long. That’s longer than the typical Twitter time limit of two minutes and twenty seconds. Twitter Blue users will now be able to pin their most important direct message conversations to the top of their inboxes, making them easier to access.
The company said it would also grant subscribers early access to new features, allowing them to test products and provide feedback. Twitter Blue is available in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, Twitter said.
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