LinkedIn is the social network for the ambitious and saccharine, people who want to read “thought leadership”, share #careergoals, and get hired. Its premium plans start at $50 a month for the privilege. Twitter, the caustic social network dominated by the media and political classes, seems to think it can do something similiar.
Under its unpredictable new owner Elon Musk, Twitter is mulling charging $US20 ($31) a month for its premium service that includes a blue tick authenticating a user’s account.
Fears of a Musk-driven exodus from Twitter are overblown, but the idea it could charge like LinkedIn is fanciful.
It is an unwise move. Twitter depends on the journalists and political tragics, especially in English-speaking markets, to post on its platform. There is no sign that Australian media outlets would stump up almost $400 per journalist annually to have them verified.
Senior sources say The Guardian is unconvinced. Nine, which owns The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review along with its TV news operations, isn’t interested either. A source at the ABC was equally blunt when asked if the national broadcaster would pay. “No,” they said.
And Peter Fray, editor-in-chief of the smaller news site Crikey, gave a vague but sceptical analogy: “[Social media] is a bit of smorgasbord,” Fray said. “Would you pay an extra $20 for the jumbo prawn that already turned out to be a shrimp?”
Loading
It would be equally foolish to forecast a mass exodus from Twitter, despite the headlines suggesting Musk’s ownership and libertarian bent have already spurred a wave of celebrities to leave. The lists of those who have left are anaemic. The women’s magazine Cosmopolitan counted five. US broadcaster NBC had nine, with no genuine A-listers.
The reality is that Twitter has not been a platform for movie stars and models for years; the platform is not visual enough to compete with TikTok or Instagram. Justin Bieber’s 113 million followers hardly ever see a post from the singer.
Instead, Twitter relies on “heavy tweeters”, the 10 per cent of users who generate 90 per cent of tweets and half the company’s revenue.