Paying for Twitter may seem like a left-field idea, but is it? We already pay for plenty of online content. Is Twitter really a step too far?

We are certainly getting more and more accustomed to paying for content online, especially with the rise of on-demand streaming services. It does, however, feel strange for this same paid model making its way to social media platforms.

Once again, I was super excited to be a guest on Download This Show with Marc Fennell and have a chat about what paying for Twitter will involve, what it will look like, and whether or not it is a feasible business model for the global tech giant.

Following in the footsteps of platforms like Facebook, YouTube, GitHub, and Patreon, Twitter recently announced a new feature which will allow users to charge their followers for the privilege of accessing additional premium content.

It is a payment feature called ‘Super Follows.’ But what exactly will you get for your Super Follow? Well, you can expect to enjoy access to things like bonus tweets, access to community groups, newsletter subscriptions, or maybe even a badge indicating that you are truly a super follower.

Personally, I love Twitter. It is definitely one of my favourite social media platforms. However, would I pay for Twitter? Probably not.

If you were to pay to follow someone on Twitter, who would it be? Maybe State of Social? I hear they do good things.

Where I see this new paid model working for Twitter is for users with really involved communities who can offer something through Twitter that their followers can’t find anywhere else.

If you ask me, it seems like Twitter really missed out on a golden opportunity to bring more Australians to its platform, when Facebook and the Australian government got into a good, ol’ fashioned scuffle earlier this year. Asking people to pay for niche content seems like a strange way to entice people to join the platform, but only time will tell if this gamble pays off for Twitter.