The microblogging social network Twitter has acquired Revue, a newsletter platform based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Over the course of its existence since 2015, Revue has raised €400,000 and kept a minimalist team of six people.
The deal signifies Twitter's interest in building features around long-form content. In a blog post, the company said that it's “imagining a lot of ways” to connect writers and readers, “from allowing people to sign up for newsletters from their favourite follows on Twitter, to new settings for writers to host conversations with their subscribers.”
After the deal is closed, Revue will retain its brand and remain a standalone service. Its “Pro” features that used to be paid for become free for all users; in addition to that, the commission the service takes from paid newsletter goes down from 6 percent to 5 percent.
Twitter also said that it will be hiring more people to expand Revue's team “across engineering, design, research and data science. Over time, this team will build more discovery, reading, and conversational experiences centred around long-form content on Twitter.”
The social network will also focus on building solutions for authors to earn money from their content: “You can expect audience-based monetization to be an area that we’ll continue to develop new ways to support, whether it’s helping broaden revenue streams or serving as a cornerstone of someone’s business.”
Back in November 2020, rumours surfaced about Twitter considering acquiring Substack, another newsletter platform particularly popular among the startup crowd and independent journalists. Substack founder Hamish McKenzie tweeted that the deal was “not going to happen.”
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