• Media Asia, Friday, November 27, 2009 2:34 PM

Perhaps telegraphing a similar move stateside, Twitter Japan has introduced a tiered payment model that will charge audiences to view tweets from premium Twitter accounts. Twitter Japan will introduce the paid subscription options starting in January, which will allow account holders to charge audiences who want to look at their tweets and access links to their external Web sites, Kenichi Sugi, COO of DG Mobile -- a subsidiary of Japanese Twitter partner Digital Garage -- said at a conference earlier this week.

According to local reports, the plan will allow audiences to view some text on all tweets but will charge a fee to unlock access to certain images, external URLs and text. Users willing to pay to view the tweets can do so via a monthly subscription or pay-per-tweet model. Reports note that the model is ideal for account holders who deliver real-time information like news, and which include original photographs, video images and audio. Fees will likely range between about $1 to $12, while Twitter is expected to take 30% cut of transaction fees.

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