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Twitter hints at launching a paid subscription option

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Twitter logo

Twitter is working on plans for a “subscription platform” which could see users paying for some of its services.

Shares in the company rose as much as 12pc on Wednesday after two job listings for a role to help build the platform which “could be used by other teams at Twitter” appeared on the internet.

The advert did not share any further details, but said the team was code-named “Gryphon”.

The job ads have emerged as Twitter is facing growing public anger and a boycott of social media advertising by hundreds of brands over a failure to effectively police misinformation and extremist content.

Some observers believe a shift to a subscription-driven model could help improve the quality of debate on the platform and discourage the proliferation of trolls, fake accounts and abusive messages.

Twitter removed any mention of the word subscription from the listing after several websites speculated the company was launching a subscription service. By late Wednesday, however, it had replaced both with the original text, sparking further speculation.

It is unclear whether the subscription service would see users paying to use Twitter, or if individual account holders would charge users to subscribe to their tweets, in a similar model to OnlyFans or Patreon.

A Twitter spokesman stressed to CNN that it was just a job posting, not a service announcement.

Twitter makes money by selling adverts and licensing its public data, or tweets, to researchers and businesses.

Some investors believe that Twitter is underperforming and that is has a far higher revenue potential. Its  $3.4bn (£2.65bn) in revenue last year was dwarfed by Facebook's $70.7bn revenue for 2019.

Co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey narrowly clung on to his role after an activist investor pushed for his removal earlier this year.

Elliott Management, which is headed up by billionaire Paul Singer, had built a stake worth more than $1bn in the company to sway decisions at the top, including potentially replacing Dorsey.

Mr Singer is understood to have disapproved of Mr Dorsey running both Twitter and Square, a payments service, while also planning to live in Africa for six months of the year. Dorsey has agreed to stay in the US to be closer to Twitter's headquarters.