Post, one of the many proposed Twitter alternative apps, has launched its iOS app.
Launched on Thursday, Post said it is out to reinvent how information is obtained on social media. On the app, a user is presented with a menu of 3 feeds between which a user can toggle. These three are; ‘following’ , ‘explore’ and ‘news’.
The’ following’ and ‘explore’ tabs function exactly as named. The ‘news feed’ however, contains new articles from Post’s publishing partners.
They include Reuters, NBC news, Yahoo finance, Fortune, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, and Insider.
While headlines and the preamble of an article are free on Post, users need to make micro transactions with points in order to read an article in full.
These featured articles are not necessarily paywalled on the publisher’s website, in fact, most of the articles can be read for free on the publisher’s website.
On Post however, the articles are not free as some users may find the article worth paying for, and find the worth of the convenience of an in-app read without the annoying obtrusive, pop up ads.
At the moment, publishers receive all (100%) from the micropayments as the platform is funded by Anderson Horowitz and Scott Galloway who is also an author and marketing professor at the New York University.
The number of points required to unlock an article may vary depending on the outlet. Articles start from 1 point and so far the highest has been around 29 points.
To buy points, the cheapest in app transaction is for 300 points at $4.29. Thus, a 29 point article will cost about 40 cents and some articles will cost far less. Users are also allowed to tip publisters or creators for their work.
According to Post, 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 launched in beta, days after Elon Musk sealed his deal to acquire Twitter and in 8 months, the platform has recorded 440,000 users who have joined the app.
