Twitter will immediately begin sharing advertising revenue with creators “for ads that appear in their reply threads,” Elon Musk tweeted Friday. The new initiative is effective immediately, the billionaire said – thought it wasn’t immediately clear how much the payments could be.
The only catch: In order to cash in, “the account must be a subscriber to Twitter Blue Verified,” he added in a follow-up.
As is the case often with Musk’s tweets to his 127.8 million on the platform followers he bought for $44 billion last year, replies ran the gamut from funny to sarcastic to constructive feedback.
Although advertiser losses appeared to have bottomed out and even reversed late last year and into 2023 so far, Twitter’s future remains uncertain. At least in one instance, two Black ex-Twitter employees have managed to secure VC funding to create a social media app of their own.
Musk is looking to stabilize revenue by shaking things up with new features. Twitter’s Blue subscription program is now offered at $8 or $11 per month, depending on the device and operating system. Also, Twitter Spaces remains popular with web3 adopters, such as musicians and artists who do NFT drops.
On Thursday, Twitter ended free access to its API and hinted at announcing a pricing tier for developers that will be based on usage. Musk explained the move was implemented to limit bot interference on Twitter.
Musk’s announcement to allow creators to monetize ads placed within replies comes amid a general digital advertising downturn attributed to economic uncertainty.
For Twitter in particular, the transition from a publicly traded company to a private one run by Musk has come with pains, from questions over advertisers’ brand safety to Musk’s push to lift bans on Ye and Donald Trump. As previously reported, the San Francisco-headquartered micro-messaging social platform has also lapsed on rent on its offices in downtown SF and in London.
