Can Twitter beat Instagram and YouTube to become a creator-first platform?

Elon Musk, who recently took over the micro-blogging platform Twitter, is quite bullish about reinventing it in several ways. From introducing videos to subscriptions, Musk has everyone talking about the future of the platform. 

However, in the latest turn of events, Musk said that the platform will beat YouTube when it comes to sharing revenues with creators. Currently, creators are paid 55% cut of the ads on YouTube.

We can beat that

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022

Musk announced this while having a conversation about what the future of the platform is going to look like. 

BestMediaInfo.com spoke to industry leaders to understand if Twitter can beat Instagram and YouTube to be a creator-led platform. 

Arun Prabhudesai

According to Arun Prabhudesai, Founder, Armoks Media, while nothing is impossible, it might take longer for Twitter to beat YouTube when it comes to revenue sharing with creators. “We know that Elon Musk is very bullish about monetisation. It is possible; however, I don't see it happening for at least a couple of years. YouTube is extremely mature with video, on the other hand, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which is focused on text. For them to reinvent this with video, will be a task. There are a lot of things that need to be looked at while YouTube has an experience of close to 16 years.”

According to Prabhudesai another big challenge for Twitter is to tackle brand safety. “YouTube also has strict content guidelines so the advertisers know that their ads are in a safe environment. Another big task for Musk is to ensure a safe environment. I think the quickest way for them to reinvent Twitter will be to revise Vines, and integrate it with Twitter like YouTube has done it with Shorts,” he explained. 

Ayush Shukla

Citing similar sentiments, Ayush Shukla, Founder of Finnet Media, stated it will take some time for Twitter to scale up their creator contribution. “Instagram is a video-first platform, Twitter is a text-first platform. Most intellectual and influential people of the world are on Twitter and that exactly is its value. Those people don’t create videos and will not create videos. So, it's going to be hard. Twitter might do something like SnapChat, they are inviting creators to create videos on the platform.”

Ayush Guha

Ayush Guha, Head of Business Development and Strategy at HYPP, said he believes that Musk has a plan in mind which is to get monetisation for creators.

“He is known to make bold statements and he delivers sometimes. However, from a business point of view, I hope this happens because I want creators to be present everywhere. The audience is niche on Twitter because of text; however, video is bigger today,” he explained. 

Giving an insight about how creators feel about Twitter, Harjinder Singh Kukreja, an influencer, said, “Instagram learnt a lot from TikTok as well. I think in this age we can all learn from each other and Elon Musk is definitely up to something new. It will be interesting to see what the person who created Tesla and SpaceX will bring to Twitter.” 

Another leading influencer said a lot of creators don’t use Twitter today. “Honestly, i don’t use Twitter at all and Twitter for me has always been a very ‘intelligent’ platform. I have always seen Twitter as a platform for discussions more than entertainment or content creation.”

What opportunities do creators have on Twitter now? 

Shivam Agarwal

Shivam Agarwal, Founder, Deckster.Live, said Twitter already is a big part of the creator economy. He said a lot of creators, especially YouTubers use it to build credibility and drive traffic to their channels. 

“Twitter is also the right platform for most official announcements as it’s more trusted and credible. Twitter is still one of the most writer-friendly social media platforms today. We’ve seen Instagram move away from photos and texts after TikToks success and YouTube majorly remains a long-form video content platform. They have the right differentiation. Introducing a short video format can be a great opportunity with content directed more towards businesses and business owners or sharing political views could be one of the ways to grow,” he explained. 

According to Finnet Media’s Shukla, creators must look at Twitter closely as they can make money by various means like Twitter ‘Tip jar.’ He said influencers should pay attention to the platform and adapt and make content to get the most out of it. 

According to experts, while there are a lot of unanswered questions about the platform as of now, Musk will have a vision for the future. 

For example, Musk has also announced that they will introduce a subscription plan that will charge $8 for a blue tick on the platform. Earlier, blue ticks were given to activists, politicians, actors, artists, etc based on algorithms. However, experts believe the move will bring in more revenue for the platform. 

“The definition of blue tick itself is changing. By introducing subscription fees, they want to reduce spam accounts. More than 10-11% of Twitter is just spam accounts. So subscription will reduce spam accounts. So far, there was no transparency about who gets the blue ticks. So, I think the objective is to bring transparency and bring revenue out of it,” stated Shukla. 

Info@BestMediaInfo.com