Twitter has updateda mysterious job posting which the online media is quick to speculate that the social media giant is working on a possible product subscription option. The listing now says the company is simply looking for an Android engineer to "work on a bevy of backend engineering teams to create components that allow innovation to provide the best possible experience for all of our users."
UPDATE: Twitter has edited its engineer job listing, removing any mention of their internal team or their subscription feature.The job listing now says they're seeking an "Android engineer." pic.twitter.com/J0LqzUSpKx - Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) July 8, 2020
A spokesperson for Twitter told Gizmodo via email that the social media platform wouldn't hide a significant announcement on a career page and explore a range of ways to increase revenue. There isn't anything to go off of except speculation after that.
Meanwhile, several reports circulating online claim that the social media network is developing some kind of subscription platform that will eventually help users to monetize their tweets without starting a podcast or putting a Cash.me connection in their bio - that, or it's introducing a new premium or ad-free tier.
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Work for Twitter as a software engineer
The project is called Gryphon. It was listed for a contract backend Scala software engineer (since deleted from LinkedIn) and a senior full-stack software engineer in two Twitter work posts. The latter ad states that Twitter is building a "subscription network."
The platform should be leveraged by other teams in the future. The job should work with Twitter and its Payments department that manages ad billing.
The job posting states possible Twitter subscriptions will be "a first" for the organization, but how Twitter aims to introduce a subscription service isn't entirely clear. Twitter currently produces the vast majority of its revenue from ad sales and data licenses. A subscription program may theoretically offer exclusive content for a monthly fee in return.
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Will Twitter charge users?
One distinct possibility is that Twitter simply wants to charge power users for ad-free accounts for advanced analytics. That is something that is reportedly considered in the past.
The "mysterious platform" would be of primary use to corporations, nonprofits, news organizations, political or fundraising campaigns, and obsessively cultivating their personal brands.
Twitter may also be working on a Twitch- or Patreon-style system that charges users to access a Twitter feed or individual posts on a public page, The Verge reported.
Previously, Twitter has been researching selling subscriptions as a paid service to power users. A few years ago, the company conducted a survey to determine whether Twitter users would pay for new insights, breaking news updates, or information on a Twitter account.
There will also be a drastic shift for Twitter to become a payment processor. However, that currently depends on ad sales and data licensing for making money. It could be a big moneymaker to directly generate transaction fees that might otherwise have gone through a competitor like PayPal or never happened.
It's also easy to monitor how running subscription services in a platform where anyone can sign up anonymously and register a new account to circumvent bans. However, that mystery could become a nightmare for Twitter in building new funding channels for illegal activity or cybercrime.
Any possibility may have unpredictable effects on Twitter's nebulous culture, to the degree that much of the operation happens offsite at present.
