Twitter acquires newsletter startup Revue to attract users who want to make money from their followers

Twitter announced Tuesday it has acquired Substack-competitor Revue and email newsletter startup, Revue. The acquisition is part of Twitter’s effort to attract users who want to make money from their followers. The terms and the amount of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2015 by Martijn de Kuijper and Mohamed El Maslouhi, the Utrecht, Netherlands-based Revue is a developer of an editorial newsletter tool designed to build a direct relationship with the readers. Revue’s customers include Vox Media, Chicago Sun-Times, the Markup and competes with services like Substack. Revue makes it easy for writers and publishers to send editorial newsletters — and get paid.

Twitter, which did not disclose the deal value, said it would make Revue’s premium features free for all users starting Tuesday and lower the paid newsletter fee to help writers retain more of the revenue generated from subscriptions.

As part of the acquisition agreement, Revue will operate as a standalone service and expand its team by hiring for key roles across engineering, design, research, and data science.

San Francisco, California-based Twitter said the acquisition would provide writers and long-form content curators a new way to connect with their audience.