Twitter Blue, the social media giant’s subscription service, has expanded to over 20 new European countries, bringing the total number of countries with access to the service to more than 35. The countries where Twitter Blue is now available include Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.
Initially launched in December last year at a price point of $8 per month, Twitter Blue offers a Blue verification mark for paying users. It has since added several new features, including the ability to post 60-minute long videos, 4,000-character long tweets, priority in conversations, and some legacy features such as an edit tweet functionality, a thread reader, and bookmark folders.
In an effort to boost subscriber numbers, Twitter launched an annual plan for $84 earlier this year, and has now made the plan available on both iOS and Android, priced at $114.
Despite early hopes that the subscription plans would be a significant revenue stream, early results have been underwhelming. According to reports, the service has fewer than 300,000 subscribers.
The announcement of the expansion of Twitter Blue comes after the company experienced technical issues earlier this week, with many users having problems accessing various parts of Twitter, including timelines, searches, and direct messages. These issues were reported to have occurred after the company reportedly fired more than 200 employees in its latest round of job cuts.
The move to expand Twitter Blue into more European countries is seen by some as a way for the company to increase its revenue stream and diversify its sources of income. It is also a way for the company to compete with other social media platforms that are increasingly offering subscription services, such as Facebook and YouTube.
Twitter has faced increasing pressure to generate revenue from new sources, with many analysts arguing that the company has been slow to diversify its revenue streams. The company has also faced criticism from some quarters for its handling of misinformation and hate speech on its platform. In response to these criticisms, the company has pledged to take steps to tackle these issues, including introducing more stringent policies and investing in new technologies to detect and remove harmful content.
The expansion of Twitter Blue is seen as a positive move for the company, which has been struggling to find new sources of revenue in an increasingly crowded social media market. With the service now available in more than 35 countries, Twitter will be hoping to attract more paying subscribers and build on its early success.