Is Elon Musk Serving Old Wine In New Bottle? Twitter Rebrands 'Super Follows' To 'Subscriptions'

After initially promising to share ad revenue with creators for ads appearing in their Twitter reply threads, Elon Musk has rebranded the “Super Follows” feature to “Subscriptions.”

What Happened: Musk took to Twitter to announce that users who intend to monetize their work on the platform can now offer subscriptions to followers for content such as long-form texts and videos lasting several hours. 

He said that the feature could be accessed through the “Monetization” tab available in settings, receiving all the revenue from their subscribers, except for the charges imposed by platforms like Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS. 

The microblogging site won’t be charging a fee for the first year. 

See Also: Elon Musk Is ‘No Longer The CEO Of Twitter’ — So, Who Is It Now?

According to Musk, Android will initially levy a 30% charge on subscriptions, followed by 15% thereafter, although Google disputes this, as their “Service fees” page states that they impose a 15% fee on subscriptions from the start.

Why It’s Important: Initially announced in February 2021 as Super Follows, the rebranded Subscriptions appear to have retained many of the same features. This includes offering exclusive tweets, subscriber-only Spaces, and special badges in exchange for payment, reported The Verge. 

Twitter is also planning to add bonus content such as newsletters — which appears to be a direct shot against Substack, which announced its Twitter-like feature “Notes” last week. 

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