The Telegraph is reporting that Twitter’s co-founder, Biz Stone, said the microblogging service would start charging companies for using the platform from next year.
Businesses are under no obligation to sign up to a paid account, but doing so will provide them with a “special layer of access”, including feedback and statistics, said Stone. Many big name brands and companies have embraced Twitter as a way of communicating directly with consumers and engaging with customers. Personal accounts remain free.
“This takes advantage of some of the commercial use of Twitter we’ve seen from businesses like airlines and big box stores,” said Stone. “We want to present to them a layer of features that allows them to become better at Twitter, show them some of the analytics.”
Stone also confirmed that Twitter would consider signing deals with other companies to license its content and live streams to other sites. He didn’t rule out the possibility of partnerships with news agencies and media organizations, which often use Twitter feeds as part of their news gathering operations.
Photo by Twitter.