Twitter CEO: I Did Not Say ‘Twitter Is Not Exploring a Premium Version’

Update: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo took to Twitter to clarify his comments at the Wired conference:

Here’s a transcript of the exchange that led to this story:

Q: Similar to how we see brands have the ability to pin tweets, go into analytics, will we ever see an individual be a pro user or be able to pay to be a pro user and have access to those benefits?

Dick Costolo: I think that’s a perfectly reasonable expectation. Don’t take that and write down, i know people write down “users will soon have…”. It’s a perfectly reasonable expectation. We’re absolutely going to evolve the profiles page to provide users with more lightweight controls over that page. And that’s the kind of thing that I would like to see in that kind of environment. But again, the way we like to operate is the leadership team — that’s me, that’s all of my Engineering VPs, my Design VP, Jack, etc. — setting direction. We want lightweight controls for users in the profile page around these kinds of things. And then the designers and engineers work together to define how that will work. So, I don’t know what that will particularly look like when it surfaces, but it’s that kind of thing.

While the audience member mentions “paying to be a pro member” and Costolo’s initial response seems to call that very idea “a reasonable expectation”, Costolo also tells the audience member, “Don’t write that down.” The rest of the response only addresses profile page control and not some kind of premium version of Twitter.

Twitter might be developing a premium version of its service, CEO Dick Costolo indicated on stage at Wired‘s business conference in New York City Tuesday afternoon.

An audience member asked Costolo whether Twitter would ever introduce a “pro” version for individual users. Costolo refused to confirm that Twitter was working to develop one, but did suggest that it was an idea the company was exploring.

Costolo said he imagined a product with “lightweight controls” for users. “Our designers and engineers would define how that would work. I don’t know what it will look like,” he said.

He offered no further details about what the premium product might look like, nor whether Twitter is developing any premium offerings for brands.

What would you like to see in a pro version of Twitter? Let us know in the comments.