- Elon Musk said that Twitter could soon allow publishers to charge users per article.
- This feature would generate revenue sources for both publishers and Twitter.
Web3 promises intellectual property ownership, and Twitter is exploring the immense possibilities in the following internet generation. Elon Musk recently said that Twitter could soon allow publishers to charge users on per article basis with a single click. This move is supposed to benefit both the public and media organizations.
Twitter to Allow Publisher Charge Users
This exciting feature would allow users not ready to sign up for a monthly subscription which generally asked for a higher per-article price of noted publishers, to pay only when they read occasionally. By this, Twitter is attempting to find a substantial business model as its current advertising revenue system fluctuates.
Further revealing the details, Musk said that Twitter would take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the end of the first year. It should be noted that the company would take nothing for the first 12 months. The subscriptions are supposed to include long-form text and hours-long videos.
Since Elon Musk bought the micro-blogging social media giant Twitter in October 2022, he has skillfully made numerous product and organizational changes. They rolled out Twitter-verified blue tick as a paid service, which received mixed reactions from the public. Also, the strength of employees was cut short by almost 80%.
These changes were made to boost the revenue for the company after Twitter saw a significant drop in income from advertising last year. This factor was responsible for Musk’s on-again-off-again acquisition decision, which was eventually carried out on October 27, 2023, for $44 Billion.
This interesting per-article payment feature would benefit the media organization in generating a substantial revenue stream that needs help to make ends meet. As per the current scenario, the advertising revenue is unpredictable and cannot be solely relied upon.
As usual, Elon Musk’s decision received mixed reactions; this announcement also sparked a debate. Some applaud the move as this would be a positive step with the potential to empower publishers. While others criticize the decision as a way the social media giant is trying to monetize the users’ reading habits.
Ever since Musk became Twitter CEO, he has been shaking things up and is apparently determined to transform the platform into a profit-making enterprise.
Web3 and Intellectual Property
Web3 is based on blockchain technology and decentralized databases. This feature provides essential functionality that could benefit the operation of intellectual property ownership. The combination of these technologies provides the addition of timestamps to artistic content. Also, the owners can be tracked.
Creators could use smart contracts to ensure that a set percentage of the sales price is paid to the original creator, a royalty, for every time the work is resold. The decentralized approach addresses the issues by facilitating the transferring, trading, and assigning financial value to an asset.
Moreover, if the transactions are routed and tracked on a shared network, this would improve transparency and significantly reduce the licensing and contractual obligations otherwise required.
However, the existing IP ownership system has some significant flaws, like high costs and complicated legal requirements for intellectual property ownership. Also, this system needs to be fit to be taken to a global scale because the enterprise operates at multiple locations simultaneously, and IP owners are subjected to a plethora of regional and demographic constraints.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/04/30/publishers-at-twitter-could-charge-users-per-article-read-musk/