TwitPub: A Paid Twitter Service

server: jcxp.net - 16.04.2009

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A new startup called "TwitPub" has gone and done the inevitable; you can now buy and sell twitter stream access. Taking 20 of the profit for themselves and leaving 80 of the publishers, the startup has provided a simple service that allows people to register protected accounts with them. Starting a a minimum of 0.99 USD, publishers set their own monthly price for the streams, and then, through an obscure payment service called "WorldPay" people can gain access to the protected streams.

The protected streams are available through all the regular channels, such as your favorite twitter desktop app, on the twitter website, or via SMS on your phone.

For things such as stock updates, live sports tweeting, gossip magazines, and the like, this service could actually be quite useful. Perhaps, however, the service could have been a bit better thought out. By using an obscure payment service which the majority of the population has never heard of to transfer payments to PayPal accounts is a bit of a turn-off. Would you want to give your credit card number to a company that nobody's heard of?

The 140 character limitation may be a bit of an obstacle as well - if you want stock market updates, or live sports scores 140 characters is fine - but when you get into news, gossip magazines, etc. the character limitation becomes quite a limitation.

Its success is all up in the air at this point; if people are willing to pay for 140 characters per message, and are willing to put their trust in an abundance of obscure services, it'll be a hit. Perhaps in the future, they'll update to some more common payment services - it would to them well. But one thing's for sure - it's a very intriguing idea; it was bound to happen at some point, but nobody was really sure how.