Twitter aims to diversify beyond advertising, but can it be done?

Is it a pipe dream or possibility? Elon Musk wants to diversify Twitter’s revenue stream beyond advertising, a feat none of the biggest social networks have yet pulled off.

Something of a gold standard, social media ads can be fine-tuned and tailored to individual users on a mass scale, and have been particularly lucrative for Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as Google.

“Facebook pretty much set the standard for having an ad model for social networks,” said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Insider Intelligence. “But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the way that social platforms monetise.”

Social networks are facing budget cuts from inflation-afflicted advertisers and increased regulations on the use of lucrative personal data, so it makes sense for them “to be exploring new, non-ad monetisation techniques,” she said.

The issue is delicate for Twitter, whose turnover is 90 per cent dependent on advertising. Advertisers, on the other hand, do not necessarily need Twitter and can turn to other social networks.

The advertising situation at Twitter has been particularly dire since Musk took over the company in late October.

In recent weeks, half of Twitter’s 100 top advertisers have announced they are suspending or have otherwise “seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter,” an analysis conducted by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters found.

ALSO READ:

• Musk pronounces 'amnesty' for banned Twitter accounts after poll

• Billionaires make a case for abolishing themselves

They fear being associated with toxic content as Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” advocates for laxer moderation.

Social media sites are testing two alternate solutions in particular: Charging everyday users and charging content creators.

The forum platform Reddit has deployed a hybrid model, making money via advertising, paid subscriptions and digital coins that allow users access to special privileges.

That said, “It’s always hard to charge for something that used to be free,” said Carolina Milanesi of research firm Creative Strategies.

“Unless you give something different or create a different product, you can’t go from not charging to charging,” she said.

While Twitter has been offering a paid subscription with additional features since last year, Musk aimed to raise the price to $8 a month and include account verification in the plan’s perks.

A partial launch was chaotic, however, and prompted the proliferation of so many fake accounts that the rollout of so-called Twitter Blue has now been paused.

“Figuring out a way to charge users for premium features and make money off of users is not a bad idea,” Enberg said.

Milanesi added that while the network already offers some promotional tools, they are “quite expensive, and not very effective”.