Since its inception in 2006, it is increasingly difficult to imagine today’s world without Twitter’s presence and influence. While everyone may not be on the platform with a formal @ account, but you’d be hard pressed to find goods and services without an active account with followers in the high thousands. The platform, which habitually viralizes she smallest of meme moments, has mobilized major social movements and changed the way we disseminate and consume global breaking news. Hell, if it wasn’t for his salacious and inflammatory social media presence, Donald Trump may have never known what the inside of the Oval Office looked like.
Since the app is flourishing so well, these priceless timeline moments may wind up with a price tag in the future via premium membership. CEO Jack Dorsey was questioned about eventually monetizing the app beyond advertising at the 2017 annual shareholders meeting on Monday (May 22), and he didn’t shoot down the idea. According to Recode, the Twitter team has “kicked around” the thought of a subscription model for the service for a while, with extra incentives for those paying users (they’ve also considered doing the same for Tweetdeck, a subsidiary).
However, Dorsey is keenly aware that at this time, it’s crucial for Twitter to remain a catalyst for today’s most poignant conversations and source of by-the-minute happenings.
“We do believe that there is a real importance that Twitter is accessible to everyone in the world no matter what their economic stature is and where they are in life, so the general case has been to make Twitter free and open,” Dorsey said. “We’re always talking with our customers around what could be and what they’d like to see, and this is an idea that has come up. We don’t have any particular plans to announce today but we’re always looking at those patterns, that feedback and understanding if it’s the right thing to do for the greater Twitter audience.”