Musk appears to be exploring new Twitter revenue streams. The microblogging platform is reportedly testing “Coins,” an in-app currency that lets authors make money.
This information was made public by two app researchers, Nima Owji and Jane Manchin Wong, who published screenshots of the upcoming money features on their Twitter accounts.
According to their post, the currency option appears to be an enhancement of Twitter’s “Tips” monetization mechanism. The “coins” menu option takes users to the “coins” shopping page, where they can buy them using Swipe. According to the page, users can support “excellent” tweeters with coins.
Twitter’s ambitions for coins, which may be used for more than tipping authors, are uncertain since the feature has not yet been introduced. Wong also released a screenshot of a Twitter award page that appeared to show that microblogging site users could use the coin to buy in-app presents for others.
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These gifts cost one penny to five thousand dollars. It’s unclear how much the coins cost, if they can be turned into cash and whether they can be used to buy other things. If not utilized, the user’s balance can hold these coins.
This “coin” feature has been linked to cryptocurrencies, especially as the visual resembles Dogecoin. Owji claims he has no evidence linking the coin to Bitcoin.
Social media reward systems
Twitter’s compensation system for content providers is not the first. Users can send Twitter coins dubbed “Mind Blown,” “Bravo,” and “Super Like” to their favorite content providers on the Twitter award page.
This is comparable to Reddit’s incentive system, which lets users send “Reddit Coins” to content creators. TikTok’s “TikTok coin” can be bought and sent to live streamers.
Creators have the most monetization choices on YouTube. YouTube products allow producers to earn YouTube’s advertising revenue and provide producers with a portion of their video’s ad revenue.
Why is this happening on Twitter?
Since Elon Musk paid $44 billion to buy the microblogging platform, the businessman has encouraged its staff to find alternative sources of income aside from advertising. This is especially true now that activists’ pressure on advertising has caused a decline in revenue.
Elon Musk fired nearly 3,700 employees, including senior managers, to cut expenses and boost the business’s income.
Building a revenue mechanism to compensate content creators is something that the CEO is passionate about. The microblogging service expects to increase its revenue with the launch of the $8 Twitter Blue membership, opening up opportunities for app authors to be paid.
Twitter presently offers a few alternative revenue-sharing solutions that are more focused on creators. For instance, it provides the artist with 97% of the money it makes through its Super Follow service. Users can purchase the “Super Follow” option to gain additional access to someone they are already following.
In order to increase money, Elon Musk intends to sell usernames through online auctions after tweeting that the platform would soon begin releasing 1.5 billion usernames.