Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and co-founder & CEO of Square, speaks during the crypto-currency conference Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Mana Convention Center in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021.
Marco Bello | AFP | Getty Images
Twitter on Wednesday launched Super Follows, a feature that allows select users to charge others for access to subscriber-only content.
This new feature will finally allow the company’s most popular users to generate revenue from their followers, but access to Super Follows is limited.
Here’s how you can qualify and apply for access to set up your account for Super Follows.
How to qualify for Super Follows
Not everyone will be able to set up Super Follows for accounts. It’s only open to users who:
Have at least 10,000 followers. If you haven’t hit that milestone yet, you’re going to have to keep tweeting for free.
Have tweeted at least 25 times within the last 30 days. If you aren’t creating regular content, step aside.
Are based in the U.S.
Are least 18 years old.
How to apply
If you meet the qualifications, applying will be easy.
Open up the Twitter app and swipe the screen to the right to pull up a menu. Toward the bottom of that menu you will see “Monetization.”
Because I have more than 10,000 followers, I am allowed to set up a subscription Super Followers account.
Screenshot
Tap on that, and then tap on “Super Follows.”
This will take you to a screen that explains how Super Follows works and how much you could earn by monetizing your Twitter account.
For example, I could earn nearly $900 a month from Twitter if I priced my Super Follows at $4.99 per month and 2% of my nearly 13,000 followers subscribed, according to Twitter. (This is purely hypothetical, as CNBC doesn’t allow reporters to earn money this way.)
Screenshot
Tap on “Check eligibility” at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll be taken to a screen that shows if you qualify. If so, you can tap on the “Apply” button.
Screenshot
Twitter will ask you to verify you are 18 or older, and it will ask you to complete your profile and turn on two-factor authentication for your account.
After that, Twitter will ask you what category of content you’ll be making, such as art, comedy or gaming. It will also ask you what other platforms you are on, including Twitch, Facebook and OnlyFans.
Finally, the application asks you to describe how you plan to use Super Follows. Applicants can also fill out an “About you” description of themselves and list their gender and ethnicity, although these are not required. Once filled out, users hit “Submit application.”
After the application
It’s unclear how long users have to wait to be accepted after they submit their application, but in its announcement, Twitter said that users who apply for Super Follows will join the waitlist.
Users whose applications are accepted will be able to set their subscription price as either $2.99, $4.99 or $9.99.
Once you have a Super Follows account, you’ll be able to designate every tweet as either for regular followers or for paying followers only:
Screenshot
Your followers will be able to sign up by clicking a purple icon with a human and a star next to the follow button on your profile.
That’s it! Now you can finally earn some money from your Twitter habit.
Alphabet and Disney on Friday announced that they’ve reached a deal to restore content from ABC and ESPN onto Google’s YouTube TV.
The deal comes after a two-week standoff between the two companies that started on Oct. 31. The stalemate resulted in numerous live sporting events, including college football games and two Monday Night Football games, being absent from the popular streaming service.
“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers,” YouTube said in a statement. “Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf.”
Disney Entertainment’s co-chairs Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, along with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, said in a statement that said the agreement reflects “how audiences choose to watch” entertainment.
“We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football,” they said.
More than 20 Disney-owned channels were removed from YouTube TV, which offered its subscribers $20 credits this week due to the dispute. In addition to ABC and ESPN, other networks that were unavailable included FX, NatGeo, Disney Channel and Freeform.
The main sticking point between the two companies was the rate Disney charges YouTube TV for its networks. Disney’s most valuable channel, ESPN, charges carriage of more than $10 a month per pay-TV subscriber, a higher fee than any other network in the U.S., CNBC previously reported.
It’s not the first conflict this year between YouTube and legacy media.
NBCUniversal content was nearly removed from YouTube TV before the companies reached an agreement in October, preventing shows like “Sunday Night Football” and “America’s Got Talent” from being pulled.
YouTube TV also found itself in a standoff with Fox in August that almost resulted in Fox News, Fox Sports and other Fox channels going dark on the service just before the start of the college football season. The two sides were able to strike a deal to prevent a blackout.
YouTube said it has the option for future program packages with Disney and other partners.
Disney said that access to a selection of live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited, which includes content from ESPN+ and new content on its all-inclusive digital service coming later this year, will be available on YouTube TV to base plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026.
Here’s the memo that Disney executives sent to employees:
Team,
We’re pleased to share that we’ve reached a new agreement with YouTube TV, and all of our stations and networks are in the process of being restored to the service.
While this was a challenging moment, it ultimately led to a strong outcome for both consumers and for our company, with a deal that recognizes the tremendous value of the high-quality entertainment, sports, and news that fans have come to expect from Disney.
Over the past few years, we’ve led the way in creating innovative deals with key partners – each one unique, and each designed to recognize the full value of our programming. This new agreement reflects that same creativity and commitment to doing what’s best for both our audiences and our business.
We’re proud of the work that went into this deal and grateful to everyone who helped make it happen — especially Sean Breen, Jimmy Zasowski, and the Platform Distribution team for their tireless commitment throughout this process.
Thank you all for your patience and professionalism over the past several weeks. As you all know, the media landscape continues to evolve quickly, which makes these types of negotiations complex. What hasn’t changed is our focus on the viewer. Our priority is — and will always be — delivering the best experiences and the best value to fans, and we’ll continue working closely with our partners to ensure we’re fulfilling that mission for our audiences.
We’re incredibly optimistic about what’s ahead and grateful to all of you for continuing to set the standard for entertainment around the world.
Alan, Dana & Jimmy
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Friday’s key moments. 1. The S & P 500 turned higher Friday. The index opened lower after posting its worst one-day performance since Oct. 10. Still, Wall Street remains cautious of Big Tech’s heavy spending and stretched valuations. Jim Cramer reminded investors to stick with profitable companies — like Nvidia and Microsoft , both Club names, and Alphabet — rather than those that make promises they can’t back. While our trusted S & P Short Range Oscillator is not yet oversold, we’re eyeing some select buying opportunities among stocks that have pulled back. We’re preparing to free up more cash as we look to move on from Disney , where linear television networks have been weighing on profits. Jim said Disney is “in denial” about their challenges. 2. Shares of drugmaker Bristol Myers fell more than 3.5% on Friday after a phase 3 trial for one of its experimental drugs was halted due to a patient health issue. The drug in question was not Cobenfy — the schizophrenia treatment we’ve been bullish on for its potential use on Alzheimer’s. A big Cobenfy readout is due by the end of the year. It’s a make-or-break update for us as investors, given management’s consistent issues with execution. “It’s hard to have faith in management after a series of miscues,” said portfolio director Jeff Marks. We’ve been selling the stock, and as Jim said during Thursday’s November Monthly Meeting , if the shares resume their recent rise, we would look to trim further. 3. Looking ahead to next week, there are four Club names reporting earnings, starting with Home Depot on Tuesday before the opening bell. The near-term setup makes it challenging to maintain a positive stance due to the current elevated state of mortgage rates. At the same time, there’s a significant amount of pent-up demand in the housing sector, which should be beneficial for the home improvement retailer. Next up is TJX on Wednesday before the opening bell. The off-price retailer is a big under-promise, over-deliver story, as it tends to beat the high end of guidance. Nvidia also reports on Wednesday, but after the closing bell. There are a lot of bears on the stock right now, but Jim maintains his “own it, don’t trade it” stance. Finally, cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks reports on Wednesday, after the bell, and we’re interested in hearing how management plans to beef up its agent-based security. 4. Stocks covered in Friday’s rapid fire at the end of the video were: Applied Materials , Walmart , Gap , and Nucor . (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long DIS, BMY, HD, TJX, NVDA, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
An exterior view of the new JPMorgan Chase global headquarters building at 270 Park Avenue on Nov. 13, 2025 in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase has secured deals ensuring it will get paid by the fintech firms responsible for nearly all the data requests made by third-party apps connected to customer bank accounts, CNBC has learned.
The bank has signed updated contracts with fintech middlemen that make up more than 95% of the data pulls on its systems, including Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar and Akoya, according to JPMorgan spokesman Drew Pusateri.
“We’ve come to agreements that will make the open banking ecosystem safer and more sustainable and allow customers to continue reliably and securely accessing their favorite financial products,” Pusateri said in a statement. “The free market worked.”
The milestone is the latest twist in a long-running dispute between traditional banks and the fintech industry over access to customer accounts. For years, middlemen like Plaid paid nothing to tap bank systems when a customer wanted to use a fintech app like Robinhood to draw funds or check balances.
That dynamic appeared to be enshrined in law in late 2024 when the Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized what is known as the “open-banking rule” requiring banks to share customer data with other financial firms at no cost.
But banks sued to prevent the CFPB rule from taking hold and seemed to gain the upper hand in May after the Trump administration asked a federal court to vacate the rule.
Soon after, JPMorgan — the largest U.S. bank by assets, deposits and branches — reportedly told the middlemen that it would start charging what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars for access to its customer data.
In response, fintech, crypto and venture capital executives argued that the bank was engaging in “anti-competitive, rent-seeking behavior” that would hurt innovation and consumers’ ability to use popular apps.
After weeks of negotiations between JPMorgan and the middlemen, the bank agreed to lower pricing than it originally proposed, while the fintech middlemen won concessions regarding the servicing of data requests, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
Fintech firms preferred the certainty of locking in data-sharing rates because it is unclear whether the current CFPB, which is in the process of revising the open-banking rule, will favor banks or fintechs, according to a venture capital investor who asked for anonymity to discuss his portfolio companies.
The bank and the fintech firms declined to disclose details about their contracts, including how much the middlemen agreed to pay and how long the deals were in force.
Wider impact
The deals mark a shift in the power dynamic between banks, middlemen and the fintech apps that are increasingly threatening incumbents. More banks are likely to begin charging fintechs for access to their systems, according to industry observers.
“JPMorgan tends to be a trendsetter. They’re sort of the leader of the pack, so it’s fair to expect that the rest of the major banks will follow,” said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.
Shearer, who worked at the CFPB under former director Rohit Chopra, said he was worried that the development would create a barrier of entry to nascent startups and ultimately result in higher costs for consumers.
Source: Robinhood
Proponents of the 2024 CFPB rule said it gave consumers control over their financial data and encouraged competition and innovation. Banks including JPMorgan said it exposed them to fraud and unfairly saddled them with the rising costs of maintaining systems increasingly tapped by the middlemen and their clients.
When Plaid’s deal with JPMorgan was announced in September, the companies issued a dual press release emphasizing the continuity it provided for customers.
But the industry group that Plaid is a part of has harshly criticized the development, signaling that while JPMorgan has won a decisive battle, the ongoing skirmish may yet play out in courts and in the public.
“Introducing prohibitive tolls is anti-competitive, anti-innovation, and flies in the face of the plain reading of the law,” said Penny Lee, CEO of the Financial Technology Association, told CNBC in response to the JPMorgan milestone.
“These agreements are not the free market at work, but rather big banks using their market position to capitalize on regulatory uncertainty,” Lee said. “We urge the Trump Administration to uphold the law by maintaining the existing prohibition on data access fees.”
