Twitter Dips Toes in Pay-To-Play Waters

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Soundtrack: This week’s newsletter is designed specifically to be consumed while listening The “Weekend in LA” of the Toasters

This week: Twitter throws its toes into the water to pay to play

You may have noticed the increasing number of charges for streaming video subscriptions on your credit card statement. What started with a

Netflix
The subscription became monthly payments for half a dozen or more video services, from Apple + and Disney + to HBOMax and Peacock Premium.

Could the same payment destination play our social media and communication app?

Twitter will never get rid of the free version of its product – but there is precedent for a premium Twitter. Back in 2010 there was a flourishing market for third-party Twitter “client” apps that connected to the Twitter API and offered energy users additional options. Many of these customer apps cost a few bucks to download, and they charge additional card fees for extra features.

Ma: Twitter has rolled out third-party customers market starting in 2011 from limiting access to their API – a controversial move that was necessary for Twitter to keep people on its own site so it could build an advertising business. Now, ten years later, the ads aren’t enough, and Twitter is turning to a business model that was once shattered.

In other social media news:

Trump is banned from Twitter forever. But it could be returns to Facebook in less than two years, if it behaves and “conditions permit”.

Profile: Angel investor Jason Calacanis

He’s strong, scary, confident, and has a string of precise initial investments under his belt, including early bets on Uber, Robinhood and Calm. Jason Calacanis is partly a venture capitalist and partly podcasting shock jock – and is a polarizing presence in Silicon Valley.

As Matt Drange and Candy Cheng report in this fascinating professional:

For many, Calacanis is someone who “cuts the bulls —” and who shakes up Silicon Valley’s venture capital scene. But others said the joke could quickly become hostile, with some founders describing experiences with Calacanis that left them wondering if he was more committed to their success or to their own image.

Read the full story here:

Jason Calacanis went from dotcom roadkill to first investor in Uber, Calm and Robinhood. Here’s how to reshape venture capital with bluster, ego and media-savvy.

Quotes of the week:

“The call to video conferencing has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things we simply can’t replicate.”

– Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, in a letter to the staff obtained from The Verge, breaking the news to employees who will be expected in the office at least three days a week, comes September.

Snapshot: Here are the clouds of Mars

Even Mars has cloudy days. And thanks to NASA’s Curiosity rover, we can now see that which is to look a Martian eye.

The photo above, taken at sunset on the red planet on March 19, is one of the rare photos of Martian clouds recently released by the space agency. Mars doesn’t get too cloudy because of its dry atmosphere and super thin air. But clouds are forming around the Martian equator at some time of the year, and Curiosity had its cameras ready for each other’s weather this season.

Many of the clouds hanging in the room from Curiosity had an iridescent color, like pearls. That’s because Mars’ clouds are made of icy carbon dioxide, or dry ice, rather than water ice.. Hopefully it doesn’t rain.

Not necessarily in technology:

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