(San Francisco) Twitter has acquired Scroll, an ad-free news reader app, to boost the subscription option the network plans to launch soon, and to help fund the press, it said Tuesday, without specifying the amount of the transaction.
“Scroll has created a way to read articles without ads, popups and all the pollution,” Twitter Vice President Mike Park explained in an online statement.
“At the same time, posts that work with Scroll can generate more revenue than traditional ad space. It’s a better internet for readers and writers.”
Subscribers can visit various websites, from The Atlantic to USA Today, to browse “without ads, trackers, or spam links,” go to the details on their site. News sites get money and traffic.
In Twitter, the service will become central to designing its subscription service.
“As a Twitter subscriber, imagine having access to advanced options where you can easily read articles from your favorite newspaper, or a newsletter, knowing that part of your subscription will go to posts and authors,” Mike Park detailed in detail.
Small American Scroll confirmed the acquisition, and apologized to its users for needing to switch to Secret mode for tests prior to the final merger.
Twitter has struggled to find ways to generate revenue without disrupting the flow of its real-time messaging system.
The California group published weaker-than-expected results last week. The number of so-called “monetized” daily users (who were exposed to at least one ad on a given day) reached 199 million in the first quarter, or 1 million less than analysts had forecast.
The network has been striving to expand beyond its main audience, made up of celebrities, journalists and political leaders, while constantly having to invest more against disinformation and problematic content to keep discussions and exchanges as calm as possible.
