Twitter acquires Scroll, a subscription service that hides website ads

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/4/22417852/twitter-buying-scroll-subscription-service-news-revue-newsletter

In recent years, Twitter has been aggressively acquiring various startups, and in January 2021 it acquired the podcast application 'Breaker' and the voice SNS application 'Clubhouse ' which attracted a lot of attention in Japan for 440 billion yen. It is reported that they were also negotiating to buy it at.

It is clear that Twitter was planning to acquire Clubhouse for 440 billion yen --GIGAZINE

And on May 4, 2021 local time, Twitter announced the acquisition of a new Scroll. Scroll is a subscription service for $ 4.99 (about 550 yen) per month that allows you to comfortably browse news sites by hiding advertisements for affiliated websites at once.

Scroll has contracts with online media such as The Verge, Bored Panda, and BuzzFeed News, and subscribing to a subscription service disables advertising and tracking on affiliated sites. Unlike ad blockers, affiliated sites are designed to receive distributions from subscription fees paid by users, saying, 'If the revenue of the website you browse increases, the website will have more good content.' Scrollclaims .

Scroll commented that while its service provided benefits to both journalists and users, service deployment was not progressing fast enough. That's why Scroll was very excited when Twitter approached accelerating service rollout. 'Twitter is the only large platform whose success is deeply linked to the sustainable journalism ecosystem,' because journalism plays an important role in the conversations that take place on Twitter.

The acquisition by Twitter will stop accepting new registrations for Scroll, but The Verge expects existing customers to continue to use the service for some time. Scroll's existing service will be in private beta as it will be integrated into a wide range of Twitter subscription services later this year, Scroll said in an official blog reporting its acquisition by Twitter. Will be incorporated into Twitter's subscription service.

In addition, Twitter acquired Revue, a newsletter distribution service, in January to expand the functionality of the subscription service , and the newsletter transmission function that can be subscribed for a fee has already been integrated.

Twitter acquires newsletter distribution service Revue, making it possible to send newsletters for free --GIGAZINE

While Scroll's services will be integrated into Twitter, the curated news app Nuzzel , which Scroll acquired in 2019, will be shut down on May 6. 'Over time, we bring the core elements of Nuzzel directly to Twitter,' Twitter said.

'We plan to include Scroll as part of future subscription services we are currently investigating,' said Mike Park, vice president of products at Twitter. It hints at building a subscription service. 'Twitter's ambitions are greater than people think,' Scroll said in an official blog, arguing that Twitter focuses not only on the value it earns, but on the success of third parties. ..