Why So Blue? Twitter Pioneers a Premium Platform Model

Since the introduction of the algorithmic newsfeed, people have wondered aloud why there isn't an option to pay for a premium version of their favourite social media platforms. This week that idea gets its first real test.

Twitter’s Paid Version

Twitter rolled out its paid version, known as Twitter Blue, and the initial reactions have been mixed. It goes for $3.99 per month and comes with a few features that people have been asking for, but it's confusing to understand exactly what you're getting, and why. Even the now-great Amazon Prime subscription service started out small, but at least in that case it was easy to tell your friends why you singed up (free 2-day shipping).

I signed up for Twitter Blue a few days ago, and here's what I've found so far:

• The long-awaited Edit button is finally here (sort of). Blue users get a time delay on their tweets which allows you to hit undo, and make changes before re-sending the tweet
• Bookmarks make it possible to save and organize your favourite content. If that feels like déjà vu, it's because Twitter used to have a button that was literally called "Favourite" before they changed its names to Likes.
• Perhaps my favourite new feature is the Reader view for long threads. Until now, people have built third-party services like Unroll and Threaded Reader that would allow users to compile threads into easy-to-read pages. Twitter has now done that for us, and it's much better than being forced to click out to a third-party site.
• Ad-free articles — Some publishers that would typically put their content behind a paywall are making their articles available to Blue readers for no additional charge.
• Top Articles —A curated list of the most shared articles in your network from the past 24 hours.

As you can see, none of the features themselves are game-changing, but it does create an incrementally better Twitter experience.

More importantly, its success or failure will likely inspire the other major channels to try their own versions of the premium-platform model, which may eventually help to move us away from the algorithmic, ad-driven newsfeed model that has caused so much damage over the past decade.

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting