Twitter shares were up nearly 9% in a flat market as reports, sparked by a job posting, circulated that the social media platform, is contemplating some type of subscription platform.
The posting was for a developer to work on a team called Gryphon.
“We are a new team codenamed Gryphon. We are building a subscription platform, one that can be reused by other teams in the future. This is a first for Twitter!” the post said. “Gryphon is a team of web engineers who are closely collaborating with the Payments team and the Twitter.com team.”
It’s not at all clear what a service would look like. The company acquired startup Periscope, a live video streaming app, before it launched in 2015. It’s still around but faces lopsided competition from giant Facebook Live.
Twitter declined to comment.
A person familar with the situation told Deadline the company “is exploring a range of initiatives as it grows and evolves the service.”
Tech stocks in general were having a solid day, with Snap jumping nearly 6% and Amazon, Apple and Netflix up around 2%. Apple continued its gains on a “fear of missing out,” Evercore research analyst Amit Daryanini told CNBC ths morning, on a strong product cycle (with 5G) and solid balance sheet and free cash flow that offers protection in volatile markets.
Facebook was up about 1%. A highly-anticipated civil rights audit called out the company’s lack of progress in civil rights as it faces an ongoing advertising boycott and flack by activists. The noice around Facebook’s content curation policies haven’t hurt the stock much but it’s possible that Twitter and Snap are benefititing today.
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