NEW DELHI: Twitter has unveiled a new product that enables users to charge followers for access to special content, as it explores more ways to make money from avenues other than advertising.

The social media company announced a feature called ‘Super Follows’ which will let users charge for extra, exclusive material not shown to their regular followers. This can include subscriber-only newsletters, videos, deals and discounts. Users would pay a monthly subscription fee to access the extra content.

Twitter users — and the company’s investors — have long been asking it to launch a subscription-based model. This comes as a growing number of internet creators and influencers use tools like Patreon, Substack and OnlyFans to make money from their online popularity.

The move is being seen as a way for Twitter to earn revenue by taking a cut of the users' sales. The platform depends on advertising for almost 90 per cent of its revenue. Going the subscription route will allow the microblogging platform to tap into a broader range of revenue sources in a world where online advertising is dominated by Facebook and Google. Twitter did not detail what percentage of the revenue it would share with celebrities and others who sign up paying subscribers.

“Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivise them to continue creating content that their audience loves,” the company said in a statement.

Super Follows is not available yet but Twitter says it will have “more to share” in the coming months. Another coming product, Revue, will let people publish paid or free newsletters to their audience. There’s also Twitter Spaces, a Clubhouse competitor that lets users participate in audio chats. It is currently in private beta testing, which means it’s not yet available to the general Twitter audience.