Twitter introduces new paid service called Twitter Blue: here's what we know

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) announced today that has launched a paid subscription service called Twitter Blue initially in Canada and Australia for $3.49 and $4.49, respectively, in local currencies per month.

In a phone interview with BNN Bloomberg, Paul Burns, managing director of Twitter Canada, said:

Shares of Twitter are up more than 1% today. The company’s stock price is up 6% year-to-date and 66% for the trailing one-year period. The average analyst price target for the company is $62.31 while it is currently trading at around $57.90, implying a upside of nearly 8%.

Why is subscription service important for Twitter?

Twitter generates the majority of its revenue from advertising. For the first quarter, advertising made up more than 86% of the total revenues.

A subscription service will help the company diversify its sources of revenues. 

Features included in the subscription service

Twitter Blue will include an Undo Tweet feature that will allow users to set a customizable timer of up to 30 seconds to take back a tweet if it needs to be fixed. Twitter users have long demanded an edit feature. Even though the released functionality is not quite an edit button, it will allow subscribers to preview what their tweets look like and adjust them before they’re published.

Another feature — ‘Bookmark Folders’ — will make it possible for users to better organize the saved tweets. A Reader Mode feature is also included to make it easier to read long threads.

Some other options include the ability to customize the Twitter app icons on mobile phones and the option to select color themes for the Twitter app.

The subscription will also include dedicated customer support with faster response times to address user issues.

The company will be possibly introducing more features before the service is launched in additional markets as it gathers feedback from the users of the new subscription service in Canada and Australia.