After a very troubled and controversial 2022 for Twitter, we have already got the primary indicators that 2023 is probably not that completely different in bluebird land.
Based on The Monetary Occasions, Elon Musk, the latest Twitter CEO, is planning to make Twitter a fee platform, going fully past something we might have presumably imagined for Twitter’s future.
It’s troublesome to think about Twitter as a fee platform, I do know. Principally, with each current Twitter replace, as loopy as they had been, they had been at all times in keeping with content material creation – Twitter’s essential focus till now. The polemic edit button and several other different adjustments we’ve been monitoring currently, all of them had been at some stage associated to content material.
Effectively, it doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. In January 2023, Twitter began to work on a characteristic referred to as Cash, permitting customers to help creators on the platform. Okay, making just a little effort, this characteristic remains to be throughout the content material creation universe, proper!? TikTok, for instance, has launched the Creator Fund, with a really comparable proposal.
However, nonetheless in keeping with The Monetary Occasions report, Musk goes just a little additional and needs customers to have the ability to purchase stuff on the platform, together with the chance to ship cash to one another – and never simply to creators. And it’s right here, for my part, that we utterly go away the universe of content material creation, and begin a brand new chapter within the historical past of the platform.
Okay, however what does this imply for entrepreneurs and types?
This new characteristic (and the brand new Twitter chapter) could take some time since the corporate must take some bureaucratic steps with the U.S. Treasury and wishes regulatory licenses earlier than beginning to function as a fee processor. However, even so, what does this variation imply to entrepreneurs and types – and even to creators and customers?
It’s laborious to think about how Twitter will look within the close to future, and even what the aim of the platform will likely be. Are we nonetheless speaking a few content material creation platform, or will the main focus solely be on funds? And within the case that we now have all the pieces taking place in the identical place, each content material and funds, how will this dynamic work?
Sadly, we nonetheless don’t have the reply to those questions. Digging just a little deeper into Elon Musk’s previous, his historical past with X.com and Paypal in 2000, and his self-professed love of cryptocurrency could give us a clue of what he’s planning on doing with Twitter, however, though, all the pieces remains to be within the assumption subject.
However oddly sufficient, we will say that this Twitter motion to start out exploring fee options was predictable. First, it isn’t a secret that Elon Musk is looking for alternatives to make Twitter worthwhile once more, since the platform misplaced lots of its prime advertisers final yr.
Second, this “in-app fee” motion can also be taking place with different main gamers within the digital world: Amazon is testing a purchasing feed, aiming to ensure a whole purchaser expertise in-app, and TikTok can also be exploring comparable paths.
For now, Twitter remains to be for creators and types to work together with its viewers, subsequently your technique doesn’t must drastically change – and there’s already lots to be explored.
However when the time involves discover this new characteristic, don’t neglect to place your buyer on the heart of your choices. As we noticed on this article, in-app fee choices are coming, thus it will likely be our job as Advertising and marketing professionals to make sure the identical purchaser expertise wherever we resolve to discover.
Do you need to proceed to be up to date with Advertising and marketing greatest practices? I strongly counsel that you simply subscribe to The Beat, Rock Content material’s interactive publication. There, you’ll discover all of the traits that matter within the Digital Advertising and marketing panorama. See you there!
