Twitter and Walmart show signs of subscriber envy – ZAWYA

Twitter and Walmart show signs of subscriber envy – ZAWYA

Twitter and Walmart show signs of subscriber envy | ZAWYA MENA Edition HomeMarketsEquitiesArticleTwitter and Walmart show signs of subscriber envy Subscription makes more sense for Walmart, at least in garnering more revenue. But becoming more like Amazon could bring a downside    3D-printed Facebook and Twitter logos are seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Files(The authors a Reuters Breakingviews columnists The opinions expressed are their own.)NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Some companies, and their investors, are going goggle-eyed over subscriptions. The mere hint that Twitter and Walmart are considering paid services sent their market values soaring in recent days. True, some companies that hit up customers for monthly fees are performing well. But it's not only customers who could end up paying.Jack Dorsey's social network posted a job ad on its careers site mentioning a subscription platform that would collaborate with its payments and Twitter.com teams. It was later edited, leaving the details a mystery. But the $26 billion company's stock was up by more than 11% on Wednesday. As for Walmart, the $360 billion retailer is cooking up plans for an Amazon.com Prime-like subscription service, according to Vox's tech journal