Twitter Inc CEO Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for the social media platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click.
“This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per-article price for when they want to read an occasional article,” Musk wrote on Twitter, adding: “Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public.”
He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take.
Photo: Reuters
The announcement came as Musk has been struggling to make Twitter profitable amid frequent controversy.
Media organizations have wrestled for years with how to formulate subscription plans that pay their operating costs, even as readers have grown accustomed to getting news for free on the Internet.
The Musk plan raises questions about how he would make the micro-payment approach work when others have failed. British journalist James Ball listed several problems with micro-payment — an idea, he said in a Columbia Journalism Review article “definitely occurred to major publishers across the planet.”
Many readers will simply click away when encountering a paywall, Ball said.
Publishers “vastly” prefer to sign up full-time subscribers, which bring far more in ad revenue than the 20 cents or so from the sale of a single article, he said.
The per-article approach could encourage “click bait” or favor large publishers, some people on Twitter said.
However, other Twitter users reacted positively.
“Great idea,” wrote Greg Autry.
“As a frequent author in publications like Forbes, Foreign Policy, and Ad Astra, I’m often frustrated when my work ends up behind a paywall that my followers aren’t willing to subscribe to. This is the right solution,” he wrote.
Carlos Gil, author of a book on marketing, wrote: “Finally, a pay-per-view for news that won’t make you feel like you’re buying an overpriced stadium beer. Get your articles a la carte and keep your wallet happy.”
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
RSS