Twitter plans to allow hosts of live audio discussion sessions called "Spaces" to charge users who wish to join the discussions, marking the first step towards monetizing its new "Spaces" feature. The company announced that the Spaces service is currently available for users of the Twitter app on Android devices, representing a significant expansion of audio capabilities in Twitter's services. Bloomberg News noted that CEO Jack Dorsey has made audio chat rooms a key focus for the company in recent months. Dorsey believes that audio communication is an important part of Twitter's future, and the company unsuccessfully attempted to acquire the audio chat app Clubhouse for about $4 billion, according to Bloomberg last month.
A New Competitor for Clubhouse
The Spaces service is a quick response to the emergence of Clubhouse. The initial version of the service has been in testing for several months. Currently, any Twitter user can listen to audio discussions on the Spaces service through the Twitter app for iPhone or Android devices. Each user can host up to 600 listeners in their audio room. Twitter stated that the ability to charge users wishing to listen to a specific discussion will soon be available to some users. These users will be able to set prices or the number of tickets sold for any discussion. Twitter will take a share of the ticket sales, but a company spokesperson declined to disclose details of this plan or the percentage the company will receive.
