Can Twitter Build Something Worth Paying For?

In its latest earnings call, Twitter Inc. announced that it was building a subscription-based service. But it revealed little else. So we asked Bloomberg Opinion’s columnists to come up with some ideas that could actually work. Here’s what they said.

A Twitter subscription model faces an interesting test as parts of the media and entertainment industry seem destined to move back toward predominantly advertising-supported platforms. Consumers tend to be more open to paying an automatic, recurring monthly fee to receive something tangible — meals, workout classes, clothing, razors, beauty products. We’re quite sensitive to the price we pay for things we simply watch or scroll, such as streaming-TV apps and social media, especially given that we often rely on multiple streaming and social media services rather than just one. But one subscription model that Twitter could explore is the idea of users paying for exclusive premium content and ideas.