It’s time to send a tweet to one another as a matter of urgency. Although it might be wise, instead, to utter a cyber whisper to your kids, probably also yourself, not to mention the grandfolks. Twitter is the first to break social media ranks and suggest the unthinkable, that of directly charging users.
This is something the microblogging platform hasn’t had to do in the decade-and-a-half of its existence. It’s always made its billions through an indirect fashion financed by advertising, while getting hold of our personal data to exploit it has always been the name of the cybergame. Social media platforms often also sell on our private information to the advertisers and marketers.
The last pandemic year has dramatically changed such a cosy commercial arrangement. Global advertising is drastically down and Twitter is looking at charging a subscription based on exclusive tweets from so-called famous people in our midst. Taking its cut, of course.
Surely the celebrity who exemplifies the notion of being famous for being famous, Kim Kardashian, must be short of a bob or two and welcome becoming involved. Poor minted Kim can charge up to half-a-million dollars to endorse this or that in a single tweet. Yet no-one really knows what she actually does, such is the celeb culture we’re endlessly confronted by.
Back at Twitter towers. In such a short period of time, we’re talking of generations who have become addicted tweeters. Amazingly, when you think about it, utilising a mere 240 characters as a communication tool. Such is the evolutionary nature of our language. Yes, of course, there are those, some would say the lucky ones, who have not succumbed to the online/mobile Twitter phenomenon that has rapidly become a way of life since its launch in 2006. Twitter has attracted more than 100m users posting 340m tweets daily, and handles 1.6bn search queries per day.
Just try to think of a life without it? Kind of difficult eh, for lots of us. Now Twitter is reaching out, as the parlance goes, by asking whether anyone would pay to read what it terms ‘good tweets’ via a feature called ‘Super Follow’ that would enable users to charge followers for access to exclusive content. If the plan goes through, ‘bonus tweets’ as they’re termed, form a key part of a mere £2.99 monthly subscription also including deals, newsletters plus, wait for it, a profile support badge. I can just hear some readers going: ‘Ooh! A badge? Sign me up’.
My journalistic colleague, The Times ‘ Tom Knowles, reports that Twitter is looking at ways to start making money, for both itself and for some prominent users and internet influencers, without relying on advertising that has all but dried up during the past pandemic year. So, let’s just think about this. Prominent users and influencers smacks to me of the celebrity culture that has befallen society and our way of life. It also includes Trump, that exemplifier of ‘fake news’ through misinformation and abuse, who, thank goodness is barred from Twitter. For the moment, anyway.
In terms of celebs charging for a post, the sums about to be bandied about are, somehow, fittingly in US dollars involving so-called famous people who must be salivating at the prospect of being able to ‘earn’ some loose change: Justin Beiber 114m followers (personal fortune estimated at $285m), Katy Perry 109m ($330m), Rihanna 100m ($400m), Cristiano Ronaldo 90m ($466m), Taylor Swift 88m ($400m), Lady Gaga 83m ($350m), Ariana Grande 80m ($150m), and Ellen DeGeneres 79m ($400m).
So, we’re talking about singers, footballers, and TV presenters, in a list that goes on and on. Shall I start the queue that’s bound to form to help out these cash-strapped individuals? Lots of them already charge a handsome fee as payment for issuing a single tweet, commenting on this or endorsing that.
Back to Kim Kardashian. I’ve discovered what she does, kind of: television personality, media/reality personality, socialite, model, businesswoman, stylist, producer, actress. I guess one sort of melds into the other in the normal course of her busy working day. She beats the rest of the celebs hands down with over 200m followers, and an estimated personal fortune, hang on, somebody’s slipping up here – a mere $53m. Better change your financial advisor hen. Oh wait, that estimate’s out of date. It’s fast hitting the billion-dollar mark, sitting at $900m, and counting.
Kardashian revealed in a lawsuit how much she commonly receives for a single post, ie between $300,000 and $500,000. For longer-term endorsements, we’re talking a multi-million-dollar deal, one being $6m for a wearable consumer goods company. American TV hostess Oprah Winfrey’s organisation is reputed to have received $7m for the Meghan and Harry interview.
Back in the real world, I think I’m on safe ground by suggesting that most of us have a relative or two who practically idolise these celebs, and that even the slightest alteration of something basic, like the sculpting of eyebrows, hairstyle change or different colour(s) of nail varnish, is slavishly copied.
Seriously, I sense at the root of the fee suggestion is that Twitter and its social media buddies have been getting thoroughly fed-up of providing the platform for such a celebrity culture but not reaping the financial benefits they feel should be heading in their direction.
Marketers appear in no hurry to return to pre-pandemic global advertising spending levels. This is despite a significant increase in users engaging with such sites during a period when the virus has all but stalled our everyday lives. Social media has all but filled that gap. I mean, don’t you want to know if Ronaldo will stay at Juventus, like he’s going to reveal this exclusively on his Twitter site? (The thing is, he just might.)
Or that The Donald is going to move to Scotland on a permanent basis? Now that’s a Trump tweet I’d gladly delete, closing my social media world down for good as I head for the cyberhills. Only kidding, we’re talking very real Scottish mountains, a Munro definitely but one with no accessible mobile signal.
Bill Magee is a freelance journalist who specialises in business and finance. He has written for many publications including The Scotsman, The Times, Business Insider and Reuters
By Bill Magee | 17 March 2021