Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Twitter finally has a paid subscription product — but it’s only for advertisers

You pay Twitter $99. Twitter decides which tweets to promote.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Justin Tallis / Getty

Twitter has a new business idea: It wants to charge advertisers a monthly fee for the company to handle all of their promoted tweets.

That means a business would pay Twitter $99 per month to pick and choose which of its tweets to promote.

“This program will do the heavy lifting,” Twitter wrote on its website. “You just need to continue using Twitter as you normally do — Tweeting updates, links, and media that you want a larger audience to see. Then, the promotion of your Tweets will be automated.”

Twitter says this is just a test that requires interested accounts to apply.

Twitter’s hope is to attract small businesses that might not otherwise go through the process of setting up their own advertising campaigns. The program is not limited to business accounts — regular users could apply, too — but businesses are the target audience.

The question is how many businesses are willing to hand over control of which tweets get promoted and which don’t. Under the new program, Twitter would have full control over that. And it’s unclear how many promoted tweets businesses will get for their $99, and what kind of reach is guaranteed, if any.

But Twitter is trying to get more small-business advertisers, and it thinks a one-size-fits-all approach might help.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel