Twitter reportedly set to launch new subscription service

Talk of Twitter launching a subscription service is not new. (AFP)
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Updated 18 May 2021
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Twitter reportedly set to launch new subscription service

  • $2.99 per month Twitter Blue rumored to include features such as Undo Tweet and Collections

DUBAI: Twitter is reportedly working on a new subscription service called Twitter Blue that would charge users $2.99 a month.

App researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted that she had discovered details about the paid service, which would include features such as Undo Tweets – similar to Gmail’s Undo Mail option – and Collections, a way for users to organize favorited tweets.

According to Wong, Twitter is also working on a tiered-subscription pricing model wherein higher tiers would have premium features such as a “clutter-free news reading experience.”

Talk of Twitter launching a subscription service is not new.

In July, the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey told CNN that the firm was looking at additional streams of revenue including, potentially, a subscription model.

That same month, journalist Andrew Roth tweeted pictures of a survey the company was conducting to find out what users would like in a paid service. The options included features such as undo tweets, longer videos, and ad blocking.

In January, Twitter bought newsletter platform Revue and in May acquired Scroll. In a blog post, Mike Park, vice president of product at Scroll, said that the service was going into private beta “as we integrate into a broader Twitter subscription later in the year,” indicating that the subscription service was due for launch this year.

Twitter was reportedly also planning to launch a $4.99 per month subscription product this year called Super Follows, which would allow users and publishers to earn money from followers for exclusive content and e-commerce deals.

The exact launch date and pricing as well as product details of Twitter Blue and Super Follows are yet to be officially announced by the company.

Twitter declined to comment on the launch of Twitter Blue but with regard to Super Follows a spokesperson told Arab News: “Our purpose is to serve the public conversation. As a part of that work, we are examining and rethinking the incentives of our service – the behaviors that our product features encourage and discourage as people participate in conversation on Twitter.

“Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivize them to continue creating content that their audience loves.

“Super Follows is not available yet, but we’ll have more to share in the coming months,” the spokesperson said.


Saudi Arabia ‘ideal partner’ in shaping next wave of intelligent age, communication minister tells WEF

Updated 23 January 2026
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Saudi Arabia ‘ideal partner’ in shaping next wave of intelligent age, communication minister tells WEF

  • Abdullah Al-Swaha said aim was to “help the world achieve the next $100 trillion by energizing the intelligence age”

DAVOS: Saudi Arabia has accelerated efforts in “energizing the intelligent age,” making the Kingdom the world’s ideal partner in shaping the next wave of the technological age, said the minister of communication and information technology.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abdullah Al-Swaha said the aim was to “help the world achieve the next $100 trillion by energizing the intelligence age.”

He said the Kingdom was expanding global partnerships for the benefit of humanity and highlighted both local and international achievements.

“We believe the more prosperous the Kingdom, the Middle East, is, the more prosperous the world is. And it is not a surprise that we fuel 50 percent of the digital economy in the kingdom or the region,” he told the audience. He added the Kingdom fueled three times the tech force of its neighbors and, as a result, 50 percent of venture capital funding.

Al-Swaha said Saudi Arabia was focused both on artificial intelligence acceleration and adoption. At home, he said, the Kingdom was doubling the use of agentic AI in the public and private sector to increase worker productivity tenfold. He also cited the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant, which was conducted in Saudi Arabia.

“If we double down on talent, technology, and build trust with partners, we can achieve success,” he said. “And we are following the same blueprint for the intelligence age.”

He said the Kingdom aimed to be a “testbed” for innovators and investors. Rapid technological adoption and investment have boosted Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy, with non-oil activities accounting for 56 percent of GDP and surpassing $1.2 trillion in 2025, ahead of the Vision 2030 target.

In terms of adoption, Al-Swaha said the Kingdom had introduced the Arabic-language AI model, Allam, to be adopted across Adobe product series. It has also partnered with Qualcomm to bring the first hybrid AI laptop and endpoints to the world.

“These are true testimonies that the kingdom is not going local or regional; we are going global,” he said.