According to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company is actively exploring additional ways to make money from its users and a subscription model is being considered.

Twitter is suffering a sharp decline in its core advertising business.

"You will likely see some tests this year," Dorsey told analysts on an investor call held to discuss the company's second quarter earnings results.

Dorsey said he has "a really high bar for when we would ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter," but confirmed that the company is seeking to diversify its sources of revenue in what are "very, very early phases of exploring," CNN reports.

There were rumours concerning a paid Twitter option earlier this month after the company posted a job opening focused on building a subscription platform code-named "Gryphon."

Twitter's stock surged at the time, a signal that investors have been looking forward to when the company finds new revenue streams.

Twitter shares rose 4% in early trading on Thursday, July 23.

Like its rival social networks, Twitter has focused on offering a free service and making money by allowing brands to target ads to its millions of users.

"We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business," Dorsey said. "We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls ... we think is complementary."

On Thursday, Twitter reported second-quarter ad revenues of $562 million, a 23% decrease compared to the same quarter a year ago.