Twitter has acquired Revue, a Dutch startup that makes it free and easy for anyone to start and publish editorial newsletters. This is coming after a failed attempt to acquire Revue’s competition Substack.
Twitter has made massive moves over the past two months to acquire start-ups as it tries to expand beyond its core timeline product.
What they are saying
- According to a blog post by Twitter VP of Publisher Products, Mike Park and Product Lead, Kayvon Beykpour, “Many established writers and publishers have built their brand on Twitter, amassing an audience that’s hungry for the next article or perspective they Tweet. Our goal is to make it easy for them to connect with their subscribers, while also helping readers better discover writers and their content. We’re imagining a lot of ways to do this, from allowing people to sign up for newsletters from their favorite follows on Twitter, to new settings for writers to host conversations with their subscribers. It will all work seamlessly within Twitter.
They added that Twitter will continue to operate Revue as a standalone product, with its team remaining “focused on improving the ways writers create their newsletters, build their audience and get paid for their work.”
- “Revue will accelerate our work to help people stay informed about their interests while giving all types of writers a way to monetize their audience – whether it’s through the one they built at a publication, their website, on Twitter, or elsewhere,” the Twitter executives said.
They also said that bringing Revue to Twitter will supercharge this offering, helping writers grow their paid subscribers while also incentivizing them to produce engaging and relevant content that drives conversations on Twitter.
Twitter will make Revue’s Pro features free for all accounts and lower the paid newsletter fee to 5%, a competitive rate that lets writers keep more of the revenue generated from subscriptions.
What you should know:
- In December, Twitter bought Squad, a multi-participant video chat app, and this month it acquired the social broadcasting service, Breaker to create audio conversations for Twitter users. And now, they have added Revue to the collection of startups.
- Revue was originally founded in 2015 in the Netherlands.
- Twitter’s acquisition of Revue also places it in direct competition with Substack, a rival email newsletter service that has been growing in popularity recently.
