Twitter has announced it will launch a “super follow” feature, which lets users charge followers for access to exclusive content. Twitter has been rumored to be working on its paid subscription service to increase revenue. The Super Follow feature will provide access to exclusive deals, content to creators for a monthly sum. Apart from this, Twitter is testing a new called Safety Mode and more.

In an investor presentation on Thursday, the social media company announced this new feature. “Why don’t we start with why folks don’t believe in us,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey at the start of Twitter’s virtual presentation. “It comes down to three critiques: we’re slow, we’re not innovative, and we’re not trusted.” Twitter users – and the company’s investors – have long been asking it to launch a subscription-based model. This as a growing number of internet creators and influencers use tools like Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans to make money from their online popularity.

The payment feature, called Super Follows, will allow Twitter users to charge followers and give them access to extra content. That could be bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support. In a mockup screenshot, Twitter showed an example where a user charges $4.99 per month to receive a series of perks. Twitter sees it as a way to let creators and publishers get paid directly by their fans.

Direct payment tools have become increasingly important for creators in particular in recent years. Patreon has been hugely successful, and other platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and even GitHub have all launched direct creator payment features. Twitter will presumably take a cut — the company has been hinting at subscription features that would offer it a new source of revenue — though it doesn’t appear to have said yet what that fee will be.

Super Follow is not available yet but Twitter says it will have “more to share” in the coming months.

Another coming product, “Revue,” will let people publish paid or free newsletters to their audience. There’s also “Twitter Spaces,” a Clubhouse competitor that lets users participate in audio chats. It is currently in private beta testing, which means it’s not yet available to the general Twitter audience.

The San Francisco-based company also said its revenue goal for 2023 is more than $7.5bn, more than double its 2020 revenue of $3.7bn.