Is Twitter building a subscription platform?

A recent job listing indicates that Twitter is building a subscription platform. The social media company has almost entirely relied on advertising revenue so this would be a landmark moment for Twitter.

The job ad for a New York-based senior full-stack software engineer clearly states that the company is building a subscription platform and adds that this is “a first for Twitter”.

This indicates that Twitter is not referring to existing subscription models. Twitter currently generates the vast majority of its revenue through ad sales and data licensing, and a subscription service could potentially provide exclusive content in return for a monthly fee.

While extremely popular with journalists, celebrities and politicians over the past decade, the platform is relatively niche and its ad revenue pales in comparison to Facebook.

Twitter has previously investigated offering subscriptions as a paid service for power users. The company ran a survey a few years ago to assess whether Twitter users would pay for new analytics, breaking news alerts, or information about what an account’s followers are tweeting about.

There was a lot of speculation on Twitter with some users agreeing that they would happily pay a subscription if it meant no more hate speech and fake news.