Twitter’s Subscription Plan Generates Yawn From Wall Street

Twitter finally provided some clarity about its plans for subscriptions today, unveiling what it calls Twitter Blue, now going live in Canada and Australia. For about $3 a month, hardcore Twitter users can get what can only be described as minor enhancements, such as the ability to undo a tweet within 30 seconds of sending it. This won’t transform Twitter’s business.

Sure, it could provide a fillip to revenue—by $700 million to $800 million a year, at a stretch. As Twitter described it today, this is aimed at power users—those people who use Twitter a lot (don’t ask why). Let’s assume a tenth of users could be described that way, which seems reasonable given this survey by the Pew Research Center last year which found that “just 10% of users produced 92% of all tweets from U.S. adults.” Extended internationally, that implies 20 million people, which adds up to around $750 million a year, judging by the subscription prices unveiled today.