Post, one of the key competitors of Twitter, has launched its highly anticipated iOS app recently, which aims to revolutionize how people consume news. This publisher-focused solution aims to evolve as the next big player in social media.
Post was launched just after Elon Musk decided to acquire Twitter with the aim of reshaping global news engagement on social platforms. Post offers three distinct news feeds: Following, Explore, and News.
The news feed section presents users with different articles published by Post’s partners. These include some trusted sources such as the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Fortune, Wired, NBC News, and Insider.
Post has come up with this new model of news consumption on social media largely to enhance an ad-free reading experience.
The headlines of the articles, along with the introductory paragraphs, are accessible to the users for free. To access the entire content in the Post app, users need to make micro-transactions using “points”.
These articles are not paywalled on the publishers’ own websites, given that readers can typically access these websites easily.
The actual publishers receive 100% of the revenue that Post generates through these micro-payments. However, Post might introduce some changes in this revenue-generation model in the future. Presently, Scott Galloway and Andreessen Horowitz, an author and a marketing professor at New York University, are funding the platform.
How Does The ‘Point’ System Work?
Readers need to spend different numbers of points based on the publisher they want to access. The lowest-priced in-app transaction of $4.29 is equivalent to 300 points. The articles are priced at 1 point onwards, with the highest value being set at 29 points.
Therefore, readers need to spend around 40 cents to get full access to the most expensive article. However, other articles are available just for a few cents. Besides, Post has developed a system where readers can directly send tips to content creators or publishers for their efforts.
Premium publishers are seeing an average of $30 CPM equivalents for paid content and an average of $1.3 CPM equivalent from tips for free content.Post
Besides creating a unique monetization system, Post is focusing on its robust moderation tools that make the platform different from Twitter.
Post Continues To Stride Ahead With Its Unique Approach
Since its initial launch eight months ago, Post has acquired more than 440,000 users. Currently, they are trying to grow its reach and appeal to a broader mainstream audience through the newly launched iOS app.
Some of the other alternatives of Twitter, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, also continue to pose a challenge to the social media platform. These two apps have recorded around 780,000 and 4.4 million downloads, respectively. In contrast, Twitter has recorded more than 250 million daily users, as recorded in November.
Getting the app live is the next big step in bringing Post to everyone, everywhere.Noam Bardin, Post’s CEO
Post’s innovative model to redefine news consumption encourages users to engage with content from different news outlets without subscribing to each of them separately. Besides, Post has priced its premium content reasonably, as the price ranges from just a few cents to 40.
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Tomi Volkman