Twitter Unveils 'Professional Profiles' — An Attempt To Rival LinkedIn?

Twitter Inc TWTR on Wednesday announced it is testing a new feature called Professional Profiles.

What Happened: The social media company said Professional Profiles will allow users who use the app for their work to be able to display specific information about their business directly on their profile. It said the feature is aimed at businesses, non-profits, publishers, and creators.

The San Francisco-based company said it is currently testing out the feature with a small pool of businesses in the United States and will give more accounts access to Professional Profiles in the coming months. 

The company didn't reveal further details but the move could be an attempt to get more professionals to use the social media website for work purposes and could rival Microsoft Corp-owned MSFT professional website LinkedIn.

Like our new look? Today we're launching an exciting test of a new profile type called Professional Profiles! pic.twitter.com/fAnzzMN1tL

— Twitter Business (@TwitterBusiness) April 21, 2021

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Why It Matters: Twitter has been trying to expand its social media offerings as the race to get more users and retain them picks up. The company held unsuccessful buyout talks to acquire social-audio startup Clubhouse and is now testing out a similar feature on its own — named Spaces.

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Not just Twitter, the social media scene is currently abuzz with cross-experiments with the likes of Facebook Inc FB, Slack Technologies WORK and Reddit are all looking to capitalize on the success of the audio social media trend. 

Facebook and Instagram have already introduced the business profile options as a feature for their apps. 

Price Action: Shares of Twitter closed 2.48% higher at $67.33 on Wednesday, and shares of Microsoft closed 0.9% higher at $260.58.

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