Twitter Japan denies subscription plan

Last week, local reports revealed that, speaking at the Mobidec2009 conference, Kenichi Sugi, COO of DG Mobile – a subsidiary of Japanese Twitter partner Digital Garage – announced that Twitter would introduce paid subscription options starting in January. However, a senior Digital Garage executive has since denied that the idea would come to fruition.

The reports detailed that the plan would allow audiences to view some text on all tweets but would charge a fee to unlock access to certain images, external URLs and text. Users willing to pay to view the tweets would be able to do so via a monthly subscription model. Audiences would be able to choose a pay-per-tweet option, which is charged to a credit card, convenience store top-up cards or carrier billing for Twitter-on-mobile users.

Sugi further detailed that the amount charged to each user will vary according to the charging account holders and is likely to range from JPY100 to JPY1000 (US$1.16 to $11.60). Twitter will take a 30 per cent cut of the transaction fees.

However, after the executive divulged the plan in such detail, Twitter issued a statement reading: “In response to media reports stating Twitter Inc. will charge their followers, we would like to officially state that this is not correct”.

Joichi Ito, director of Digital Garage, further stated in his blog that, “Twitter service in Japan is a free service and neither Twitter Inc. nor Digital Garage Inc. have discussed or have any plans for paid-premium accounts. Also to clarify, Twitter Inc. and DG enjoy a commercial partnership but do not have a joint-venture arrangement in Japan".

“The recent media reports are likely a result of a misunderstood presentation by a DG subsidiary, DG Mobile, about potential business opportunities that it could explore as a third party. DG Mobile's presentation was unrelated and separate from the Twitter and Digital Garage partnership,” Ito continued.

The initial stories made waves in the global digital community, who are keen to see how Twitter will use its success to monetise its services, and specifically look to Twitter Japan as a test bed after introducing unique services such as video.

Reports in Japan suggest that Twitter users' reaction to the plans as laid out last week was largely negative.