2/7/2023: Twitter Only Has 180K US Subscribers

could subscription really work for user generated content?

db @tier10k

~180k people in the US were paying for Twitter Blue as of mid-Jan, less than 0.2% of monthly active users Altogether, the global number of subs would equate to ~$28m in annual revenue, less than 1% of the $3b Musk has said Twitter aims to make this year

theinformation.comMusk’s Twitter Has Just 180,000 U.S. Subscribers, Two Months After LaunchAround 180,000 people in the U.S. were paying for subscriptions to Twitter, including Twitter Blue, as of mid-January, or less than 0.2% of monthly active users, according to a document viewed by The Information. The tiny number signals the challenge Elon Musk faces in turning the subscription ...

According to a report from The Information, only 180K people in the US are paying for Twitter Blue, which accounts for 62% of global subscribers. In other words, with $8/month, Twitter Blue’s ARR is ~$28M, less than 1% of the $3B revenue target Musk was aiming for.

I suppose it’s very very hard to get people to pay for an online service without making the paid version a lot better (or the free version a lot crappier). I actually do pay $8/month for the Twitter Blue but except for the blue check, I don’t really see the point. I am not surprised that Twitter’s current subscription offering is not working.

I am an oddball. I pay for YouTube premium. I had it for a while through a promotion. I reverted back to the free version after the promotion ended. But I got so many annoying ads I couldn’t stand it so I resubscribed to YouTube Premium. I believe most people can stand the free ad-supported version though. It’s just that subconsciously people’s mind is being influenced by all the advertisements, which is not great. But capitalism is brutal. Large platforms like Twitter need to make money to sustain their operations. So far, digital advertising generates way more revenue and is a much better business model than subscriptions. It seems the only way you can move people to subscriptions is to put up a bunch of paywalls on the free version. That works for professional content like WSJ or Netflix but I don’t know how it could work for user generated content. Asking users who generate content to pay for the content they generate doesn’t seem fair. At the same time, being bombarded by ads while using the platforms is also not ideal. I hope there’s a business model evolution on these gigantic social platforms. Ads and subscriptions both have significant flaws. Could someone come up with something that will fund the platforms while not compromising the user experience or people’s brains?