Twitter Strikes Back
The brilliance of Twitter's Creator Monetization program
Hey everyone,
Earlier this month, the hype about Meta’s “Twitter-killer” Threads app was defeating.
Last week, Twitter struck back by releasing ad revenue sharing for creators. The move makes it possible to actually earn a living by tweeting.
Here’s how Twitter is fast becoming the best platform for online makers, and why Doge may be its coup de grâce.
The energy on Twitter was off the charts last week as the site rolled out ad revenue sharing for creators.
Accounts which drove significant traffic were awarded a cut of advertising revenue. Revenue sharing is part of Twitter’s effort to allow creators to make a living by tweeting.
The first round of awards, which were cumulative dating back to February, ranged from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. On Thursday, the site was filled with accounts posting screenshots of their paydays.
Building a following on Twitter could become one of the more lucrative ways to make money online. The first round of rev share had several immediate effects on the platform.
After the money went out, Twitter usage boomed and appeared on the verge of hitting another all time high in cumulative user seconds.
The rise in usage coincided with a drop in interest for Meta’s competitor app Threads. CNBC reported significant dips in daily active users (-10%) and average time spent on the platform (-50%).
The combination of Twitter’s exploding usage and declining interest in Threads makes it fair to ask if some Instagram users might be migrating over to Twitter for news, memes, and other uncensored content.
Threads marketed itself as a more polite (and therefore better) version of Twitter.
In an ironic twist, revenue sharing flips this dynamic on its head.
Because revenue sharing rewards all engagement whether positive or negative, the program has the effect of allowing creators to profit from haters, trolls, and other forms of toxicity.
Counterintuitively, revenue sharing discourages bad behavior: in the new scheme, toxic reply guys are actually driving more revenue to the accounts they’re attempting to troll
Another benefit of rev share is that it allows Twitter to generate good will and loyalty among its power users.
After seeing all the screenshots of Twitter payouts, big name creators on other platforms have to be thinking of moving to Twitter, or at least setting up an outpost.
Looking to the future, Twitter making progress toward building a robust creator’s economy.
Maybe for the first time ever, the Internet has a marketplace of ideas that rewards people to speak their mind freely.
Saturday night, Elon said creators will soon be compensated for profile views, potentially doubling payouts.
Revenue sharing is a big leap forward for Twitter, but the platform is has a ways to go to fulfill Elon’s ultimate vision.
Right now, one limitation for creators is that they get compensated based on advertising dollars paid to Twitter by other companies. This still puts considerable power in the hands of third parties.
An egalitarian addition to the creator’s economy would allow users to reward good posts directly with tips.
It just so happens that Twitter and Elon have repeatedly hinted at embracing the Internet’s favorite tipping cryptocurrency: Dogecoin.
Doge tipping could be a huge boon for everyone involved:
Creators would get yet another source of revenue
Fans would gain a new and meaningful way to show support for content they like
Twitter’s algo would add a powerful metric to measure quality of content. Anybody (including bots) can click to “like” a post—sending money is a much stronger way to differentiate truly valuable content
As for Dogecoin itself, it would instantly gain a stable of popular online influencers who like the coin.
In recent days, Elon has been seriously ramping up his engagement with Doge content on Twitter.
Saturday, he liked a video arguing that Doge is better than Bitcoin as a transactional currency, a tweet about mining Dogecoin with Tesla vehicles, and a Dogecoin meme.
Sunday, he liked a tweet about “Doge Palace” in Venice and another post advocating for building micropayments into tweets.
So what do you think: is Twitter building the Internet’s best marketplace for content, and is Doge-Twitter tipping the next step?
Dogey Treats: News Bites
Gail Alfar published an excellent summary of one of Elon’s Twitter Spaces events about AI.
Tesla is in negotiations to build a factory in India negotiations that would produce 500k vehicles per year.
A viral trend of Tik Tok virtual gifts swept across social media.
SpaceX neared $150B valuation.
Elon once again tweeted that he is an alien.
Twitter asked a court to terminate an FTC order governing its data practices.
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. The article above references an opinion for entertainment purposes only and it is not investment advice. Always assume that the author of the article is actively trading and that the opinions expressed may be biased towards the author’s holdings. Do your own research and consult with a licensed financial adviser before making any investment decision. Do not treat any opinion expressed in this newsletter as a specific inducement to make a particular investment. Content, news, research, tools, and securities symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or cryptocurrency or to engage in any particular investment strategy. The information provided is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, are not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. All investments involve risk, losses may exceed the principal invested, and the past performance of a security, industry, sector, market, cryptocurrency, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Dogecoin is a speculative and highly volatile asset susceptible to pump-and-dump schemes.
At the time of publication, Dogecoin is around $0.06 per coin.