Twitter Japan to begin charging for some access
Twitter Japan will begin allowing users to charge for certain content starting in January, and the service itself will keep a percentage of each transaction.
While the original Twitter is just starting to figure out ways to make revenue, Twitter Japan, which is operated by a company named Digital Garage, has not only figured it out, but is ready to deploy it.
Starting in January 2010, users will be able to choose to charge users to read their Tweets, the name for the short messages sent on the service according to Media.asia. While every user will be able to see at least a portion of the message, users will be able to charge to see the complete message, outgoing links, images and so on.
The plan calls for payments to be made by monthly subscription, via prepaid cards sold at convenience stores or on a per Tweet basis charged to your credit card. Rate will range from JPY100 to JPY1000 (US$1.16 to $11.60), with Twitter Japan keeping 30 percent of each sale.
While this may sound odd to anyone living outside of Japan, there are two things to remember about Japan that makes it a bit more sensible than if it was done in the United States. First off, due to the construction of the Japanese written language, a lot more information can be conveyed in 140 characters than in English. Also, the Japanese are far more used to paying for individual content than pretty much else in the world. When you combine these two facts, imagine news agencies charging for news, record companies charging for exclusive content and so on.
It is doubtful that the U.S.A. arm of Twitter would ever take this route, you never know what might happen down the road, but it does seem unlikely. Also take into account that Twitter Japan does run advertising on the site, and the American version for some reason avoids it like the plague, so obviously what happens in Japan has no effect on the parent company.
Update 11/28/09: Digital Garage, the owners of Twitter Japan, have now said the details of this story, which has been reported by every tech blog, are incorrect. You can see the follow-up story here.
Related Posts:
