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After reporting Q2 earnings<\/a> that showed a marked dip in ad revenue, Twitter has said its exploring alternatives — dangling the possibility of a subscription option.<\/p>\n Earlier today the social media giant reported ad revenues of $562M, down almost a quarter (23%) on a year ago — saying that the pandemic and “civil unrest” leading many advertisers to pause campaigns had both contributed to the decline. While the US, its biggest market, saw a drop of 25% in ad spend.<\/p>\n Twitter <\/a> CEO Jack Dorsey told investors it’ll likely run subscription “tests” this year (via CNN<\/a>), though he also said the bar for charging users for aspects of the service would be set “really high”.<\/p>\n So presumably it’s not<\/em> considering a ‘your first ten tweets are free’ style pay-to-tweet model.<\/p>\n “We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business,” CNN reports Dorsey remarking during the investor call. “We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls… we think is complementary.”<\/p>\n The prospect of a paid version of Twitter — free from trackers, annoying ads and irritating algorithms which meddle with the clean chronology of the timeline — has been a holy grail for certain Twitter addicts since (basically) forever. So plenty of its most fervent users will be watching keenly to see exactly what Dorsey cooks up.<\/p>\n We’re spitballing here — but perhaps Twitter could charge, er, certain high profile, high risk users billions of dollars per month for the privilege of tweet-threatening<\/a> the rest of humanity… Just a thought.<\/p>\n Twitter casting around for ad revenue diversification looks interesting in light of broader digital privacy trends that have put the ad tracking industry under increasing (and increasingly awkward) scrutiny.<\/p>\n Certain adtech players and mechanisms<\/a> are facing challenges under European data protection rules, for instance, while there are also moves afoot in California to further tighten the consumer protections<\/a> introduced this year, under the Consumer Privacy Act<\/a>, which could see more US users blocking the tracking industry’s access to their data.<\/p>\n Last week’s massive Twitter security breach<\/a> also hardly throws a positive light on the company from a privacy perspective. Dorsey addressed the breach in remarks on today’s call, with CNN reporting he apologized to investors — admitting the company “fell behind” on its security obligations.<\/p>\n Tags:<\/b> Natasha Lomas<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/div>\n“We feel terrible about the security incident,” he said. “Security doesn’t have an end point. It’s a constant iteration… We will continue to go above and beyond here as we continue to secure our systems and as we continue to work with external firms and law enforcement.”<\/div>\nSee Campaign: <\/strong>https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/07\/23\/twitter-q2-misses-on-sales-of-683m-loss-per-share-of-0-16-as-covid-19-takes-its-toll\/<\/a>
Contact Information:<\/b>
Natasha Lomas<\/p>\n
<\/a>, Wire<\/a>, United States<\/a>, English<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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After reporting Q2 earnings that showed a marked dip in ad revenue, Twitter has said its exploring alternatives — dangling the possibility of a subscription option. Earlier today the social media giant reported ad revenues of $562M, down almost a quarter (23%) on a year ago — saying that the pandemic and “civil unrest” leading many advertisers … Continue reading After ad revenue drop, Twitter tells investors it’s eyeing subscription options<\/span><\/a> Continue Reading