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I guess I need to update my angel investors pitch powerpoint to answer their "How do you intend to make money?" question. "We'll charge users $3 a month to cha

I guess I need to update my angel investors pitch powerpoint to answer their "How do you intend to make money?" question. "We'll charge users $3 a month to change the app colors and icon.".

toyg 5y ago
Winamp should have monetized skins... /s
- flatiron 5y ago
  And whipping llama asses.
d3nj4l 5y ago
There's a lot of great apps on App Stores that have a pricing model like this. Granted, most of them don't have millions in VC funding, but it's a fine business model that can make a tidy sum.
enos_feedler 5y ago
You make it sound as though this is an absurd way to monetize. This is the internet.
njb311 5y ago
The first news story I saw about this only mentioned the amount. I assumed it was one-off for a new app, or maybe annual. Per month is crazy. I don’t object to subscriptions, but in so many cases the pricing is way out of line with the value.
ceejayoz 5y ago
Don't forget the undo button, which is presumably just the existing delete button being rebranded.
- Nav_Panel 5y ago
  You're not paying for the feature, you're paying for the UX, which is gated behind their unusable API (so it's impossible for a 3rd party app to achieve parity with the 1st party app).
  - manquer 5y ago
    In this case it is quite easy, like delayed send third party app need not make the API call until n seconds after the tweet to give you time to undo the change. Sure twitter may not do it client side and have special APIs etc, however ultimately they can also really do only limited time changes, other wise the tweets already read by others would start changing. Of course they can still pull API access for violating ToS etc, however from technology context there is nothing they can do .
    - Nav_Panel 5y ago
      The point isn't that a third party UI can't do this, it's that it can't do many other things that the native UI can, so people won't even switch.
- city41 5y ago
  I assumed it'd be like Gmail unsend: wait a little bit before pushing the tweet through, so undo can 100% make it as if it never happened.
  - bogwog 5y ago
    These are the types of features a novice app developer might implement in an afternoon after watching a tutorial video on youtube. A company as huge as Twitter selling this as a subscription seems ridiculous to me. I don't use Twitter much, but IIRC aren't there a bunch of third party apps that have power user features like this already?
KoftaBob 5y ago
Based on their recent acquisitions of - Revue (email newsletter service similar to Substack) - Scroll (subscription that shares revenue with news sites, and removes ads on said sites) I highly doubt Twitter Blue will solely get you different app/icon colors, they're likely to roll those services into Blue. This is somewhat similar to the Amazon Prime approach, where you pay for a premium version of a site/service, and get access to a portfolio of services like Prime Video, Music, 2 day shipping, etc. Their aim seems to be "Twitter Blue is to consumption of online news as Amazon Prime is to shopping/media". The way I see it, a subscription model = moving away from a system that incentivizes a platform to maximize engagement/ad views, and instead incentivizes the platform to provide a positive experience, so users stay subscribed.
asutekku 5y ago
This is how Apollo, the arguably best app for Reddit on iOS monetises.
sangnoir 5y ago
Didn't Valve make millions from hats[1] in TF2? Selling cosmetic items is way more egalitarian and less "pay-to-win". Would you want Twitter to charge $3 a month for an edit button? 1. Hats and other cosmetic changes to weapons, with no buff.
- 10000truths 5y ago
  Those cosmetic items are visible to others in gameplay, so they serve as status symbols. The features that Twitter is advertising for its premium service all seem to be purely client-side, with the exception of the ‘edit’ button, but that doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling justification for a $3/mo subscription.
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    To be clear: to my knowledge, Twitter Blue does not include an edit button! I was using it as an example of a "pay-to-win" feature that would burn (free) user's goodwill and is not a good idea in general. The only functional difference I can think of that users will tolerate between free tier and paid tier is probably removing ads
    - manquer 5y ago
      Sadly that is the one thing they are not offering, I would have considered paying for it had they removed ads and promoted tweets etc and I am very infrequent user.
- dahjkol 5y ago
  What an intellectual dishonest and disingenuous point dude.
- bogwog 5y ago
  Apples to oranges
  - sangnoir 5y ago
dang 5y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I guess I need to update my angel investors pitch powerpoint to answer their "How do you intend to make money?" question. "We'll charge users $3 a month to change the app colors and icon.".

toyg 5y ago

Winamp should have monetized skins... /s

flatiron 5y ago
And whipping llama asses.

d3nj4l 5y ago

There's a lot of great apps on App Stores that have a pricing model like this. Granted, most of them don't have millions in VC funding, but it's a fine business model that can make a tidy sum.

enos_feedler 5y ago

You make it sound as though this is an absurd way to monetize. This is the internet.

njb311 5y ago

The first news story I saw about this only mentioned the amount. I assumed it was one-off for a new app, or maybe annual. Per month is crazy. I don’t object to subscriptions, but in so many cases the pricing is way out of line with the value.

ceejayoz 5y ago

Don't forget the undo button, which is presumably just the existing delete button being rebranded.

Nav_Panel 5y ago
You're not paying for the feature, you're paying for the UX, which is gated behind their unusable API (so it's impossible for a 3rd party app to achieve parity with the 1st party app).
- manquer 5y ago
  In this case it is quite easy, like delayed send third party app need not make the API call until n seconds after the tweet to give you time to undo the change. Sure twitter may not do it client side and have special APIs etc, however ultimately they can also really do only limited time changes, other wise the tweets already read by others would start changing. Of course they can still pull API access for violating ToS etc, however from technology context there is nothing they can do .
  - Nav_Panel 5y ago
    The point isn't that a third party UI can't do this, it's that it can't do many other things that the native UI can, so people won't even switch.
city41 5y ago
I assumed it'd be like Gmail unsend: wait a little bit before pushing the tweet through, so undo can 100% make it as if it never happened.
- bogwog 5y ago
  These are the types of features a novice app developer might implement in an afternoon after watching a tutorial video on youtube. A company as huge as Twitter selling this as a subscription seems ridiculous to me. I don't use Twitter much, but IIRC aren't there a bunch of third party apps that have power user features like this already?

KoftaBob 5y ago

Based on their recent acquisitions of - Revue (email newsletter service similar to Substack) - Scroll (subscription that shares revenue with news sites, and removes ads on said sites) I highly doubt Twitter Blue will solely get you different app/icon colors, they're likely to roll those services into Blue. This is somewhat similar to the Amazon Prime approach, where you pay for a premium version of a site/service, and get access to a portfolio of services like Prime Video, Music, 2 day shipping, etc. Their aim seems to be "Twitter Blue is to consumption of online news as Amazon Prime is to shopping/media". The way I see it, a subscription model = moving away from a system that incentivizes a platform to maximize engagement/ad views, and instead incentivizes the platform to provide a positive experience, so users stay subscribed.

asutekku 5y ago

This is how Apollo, the arguably best app for Reddit on iOS monetises.

sangnoir 5y ago

Didn't Valve make millions from hats[1] in TF2? Selling cosmetic items is way more egalitarian and less "pay-to-win". Would you want Twitter to charge $3 a month for an edit button? 1. Hats and other cosmetic changes to weapons, with no buff.

10000truths 5y ago
Those cosmetic items are visible to others in gameplay, so they serve as status symbols. The features that Twitter is advertising for its premium service all seem to be purely client-side, with the exception of the ‘edit’ button, but that doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling justification for a $3/mo subscription.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  To be clear: to my knowledge, Twitter Blue does not include an edit button! I was using it as an example of a "pay-to-win" feature that would burn (free) user's goodwill and is not a good idea in general. The only functional difference I can think of that users will tolerate between free tier and paid tier is probably removing ads
  - manquer 5y ago
    Sadly that is the one thing they are not offering, I would have considered paying for it had they removed ads and promoted tweets etc and I am very infrequent user.
dahjkol 5y ago
What an intellectual dishonest and disingenuous point dude.
bogwog 5y ago
Apples to oranges
- sangnoir 5y ago

dang 5y ago

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html