Twitter to let users sell tickets to live audio chats on Spaces

Twitter Inc. will let hosts of audio shows on its network charge listeners a fee to tune in, a first step toward monetizing its new Spaces feature.

The company also said Monday that Spaces is now available to users of the Twitter app on Android devices, representing a vast expansion of the potential audience for the service. Even Clubhouse, the startup that inspired Twitter Spaces, has yet to widely release an Android app.

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has made live audio chatrooms a key product focus in recent months. Dorsey has said he believes audio communication is an important part of Twitter’s future, and the company tried unsuccessfully to buy Clubhouse for about $4 billion, Bloomberg News reported a month ago.