Twitter Rolling Out Ad Revenue Sharing For Blue Subscribers
Twitter has finally started delivering payments worth thousands of dollars to creators who joined the company's ad revenue-sharing program back in February 2023. This development comes approximately five months after Elon Musk announced his intentions to distribute a portion of the ad revenue to select Twitter Blue subscribers. After maintaining silence over the status of this arrangement for the better part of the year, Twitter finally shared an update with several of its Blue subscribers on July 13, 2023.
Soon after the news went public, several Twitter users shared screenshots of the official email from Twitter informing them about the transfer of their share of the revenue to their Stripe accounts. Simultaneously, another group of users has already started disclosing the specific amounts they received from Twitter as part of this arrangement. While the figures remain unconfirmed at the time of writing, several creators appear to have obtained a significant sum of money from the company.
Highest payout so far has been 37k! 👀 pic.twitter.com/GOxYFFOFgi
— T(w)itter Daily News (@TitterDaily) July 13, 2023
Screenshots shared by these users indicate payouts as high as $37,000 for some of the more popular creators on the platform. Additionally, many users have received varying — but still considerable — amounts ranging from $5 to $10,000. Aside from confirming these developments, Elon Musk said that creators will be eligible for a portion of the ad revenue generated by them since the date Musk announced the program in February. This, perhaps, explains the high amounts that some creators claim to have received as a single lump sum payment.
The huge caveat with Twitter's ad revenue program
While the massive payout figures will undoubtedly grab eyeballs, the majority of Twitter users will not be able to take advantage of this revenue-sharing model. To begin with, users wishing to be part of the program will be required to pay for Twitter's Blue subscription. That, however, isn't the sole eligibility criteria.
Even with a Twitter Blue subscription, users are expected to hit 5 million or more Tweet impressions consecutively for the preceding three months to be eligible. This requirement filters a large chunk of Twitter Blue subscribers from participating in the program. In addition, the revenue sharing program — in its current form — is only open to U.S. creators, which leaves out a large number of users from other markets from participating.
Now that Twitter has finally started sharing revenue with creators, it will be interesting to see whether more creators sense an opportunity and begin using the platform more frequently in a bid to maximize their earnings. In the long run, it is important to see if this move has any impact on Twitter's dwindling ad revenues which have been on a constant slide since Musk's takeover. Recent reports indicate that the company's revenues in the U.S. alone plunged by 59% in a single year.