Two days back, on the basis of reports appearing in media (TechCrunch blog, in particular), while reporting that Twitter Japan was in the process of starting Paid Premium Twitter Accounts for its users, I had argued that this Paid Twitter Account model will not succeed. Now, Twitter Japan appears to have backtracked from its proposed plans to introduce paid Twitter accounts, probably due to “the (mostly negative) initial reactions by Japan’s Twitter users”. Now, Twitter says that it was a “misunderstanding”.
It is good that Twitter Japan has realized its mistake just in a short period of a few hours fearing negative consequences of introducing paid accounts. As I had argued in detail, paid account revenue model would have been detrimental to Twitter’s own interests. If you want to succeed on Internet today, the best formula for your success is free content. Of course, earning something from your free contents by placing some ads with your contents is an acceptable method and most Internet users don’t mind that. But, paid contents on the basis of subscriptions is not going to be liked by most users; and this factual position is not likely to change any time soon. Paid content is antithetical to the idea of Internet in most cases. That’s why, in a similar manner, Rupert Murdoch’s ongoing efforts for paid contents for online Wall Street Journal and his other online media assets, and to remove contents of these sites from Google Search, are not likely to succeed.
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