Twitter acquires newsletter platform Revue

The move places the microblogging site in direct competition with rival email newsletter service Substack

To attract more subscribers, Twitter will make Revue’s Pro features free for all users. Reuters

Twitter acquired Dutch newsletter platform Revue for an undisclosed sum in a bid to add more features for its users.

Revue allows users to publish and monetise email newsletters – an area that the microblogging site is foraying into as more companies depend on newsletters to expand their reach.

"Revue will accelerate our work to help people stay informed about their interests while giving all types of writers a way to monetise their audience … whether it is through the one they built at a publication, their website, on Twitter, or elsewhere," Twitter's product lead Kayvon Beykpour and vice president of publisher products Mike Park wrote in the company's blog.

Founded in 2015, Revue counts some of the high-profile companies such as the Vox Media and the Chicago Sun-Times as its subscribers.

The move places Twitter in direct competition with rival email newsletter service Substack, which offers a platform to journalists and writers to run paid newsletters.

The microblogging site said it plans to continue operating Revue as a standalone service.

“We will continue to invest in Revue as a standalone service, and its team will remain focused on improving the ways writers create their newsletters, build their audience and get paid for their work,” the company said.

Twitter said it will expand the team and is currently hiring for key roles across engineering, design, research and data science departments. Revue’s Utrecht-based six-person team will join Twitter.

“Over time, this team will build more discovery, reading and conversational experiences centered around long-form content on Twitter,” it said.

To attract more subscribers, Twitter will make Revue’s Pro features free for all users. It is also lowering the paid newsletter fee to a competitive rate of 5 per cent to let writers keep more of the revenue generated from subscriptions. The rival Substack charges close to 10 per cent fee.

“For those looking to generate revenue, we are creating a durable incentive model through paid newsletters … bringing Revue to Twitter will supercharge this offering,” Mr Beykpour said.

“You can expect audience-based monetisation to be an area that we will continue to develop … whether it is helping broaden revenue streams or serving as a cornerstone of someone’s business,” he added.

Email newsletters have gained popularity in recent years as they have been adopted by traditional media companies and start-ups to enhance their reach.