Is Twitter bidding Nigerians bye? Why its new N2000 monthly charge matters

Jack Dorsey-led microblogging site, Twitter, announced, on Thursday, its intent to place charges on exclusive tweets and contents.

The company, in its resolution during the annual Analyst Day event, proposed to charge $4.99 per month (estimated approximately at 2000 Naira) for its Super Follows subscription, one of its set of new money-backed offerings.

According to the social networking site, subscribed users will gain access to exclusive contents, deals and discounts, community access, and other would-be offered digital perks.

With Nigeria’s 30000 Naira minimum wage, approximated at US$80, a 2000 Naira monthly subscription, that gulps more than 5% of the total amount, might not be welcomed with both hands amongst the citizenry.

For 2019, pending the publication of 2020 stats, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) pegged “Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria” at 40 percent of Nigeria’s total population, covering almost 83 million people.

READ ALSO: Twitter to charge users for exclusive contents

Therefore, in a world of “what to eat and what to wear” for most of the population, where 40% of citizens live below the country’s poverty line of 137,430 Naira ($381.75) per year, Twitter’s new offering might not be for the average Nigerian.

Market size

International statistics platform, Statista shows that the number of social network users in Nigeria were approximately 24.59 million in 2019 with 35% of this figure signed on Twitter.

Although, the figures are encouraging but the distribution of these users might not add up significantly as most of these users belong to the dependent class, a cluster of undergraduates and unemployed/underemployed graduates.

Is Twitter bidding Nigerians goodbye?

While a long list of celebrities and a class of other comfortable Nigerians, ranging in a few thousands, might be disposed to subscribe to the service, the disparity might further cut the Nigerian market share for Twitter.

The new development might also give Facebook and Instagram an opportunity to re-absorb the anticipated displaced fraction should they go on to design similar service offering for lesser cost.

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