After facing criticism for his plan to charge Twitter users $19.99 a month to obtain or maintain a verified account, Elon Musk made a counterproposal. Musk said Tuesday that he plans to charge $8 a month for Twitter’s subscription service, called “Twitter Blue,” with a promise to allow anyone to pay to receive a coveted blue checkmark to verify their account.
In a tweet, the richest man in the world used a swear word to describe his assessment of “Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has a blue checkmark and who doesn’t.” He added: “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
CNN previously reported that Twitter was working to update its existing subscription product, which currently costs $4.99 a month, to include the verification feature. they don’t start paying the highest price of $19.99 for the 90-day subscription product.
The news quickly sparked outrage and disbelief among some longtime Twitter users, including author Stephen King, who has nearly seven million followers on the platform.
“$20 a month to keep my blue certificate?” he twitter on Monday, followed by an expletive. “They should pay me. If this is instituted, I will leave like Enron.” Following up later in a reply, King wrote: “It’s not the money, it’s the principle of the thing”.
Musk responded to King Tuesday morning with his most explicit acknowledgment yet of the proposal to charge for account verification. “[Nós] We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot entirely trust advertisers,” he said. “How about $8?”
On Tuesday, Musk reiterated the $8 price and shared more details of your new plan. He said subscribers will get priority on replies, mentions and searches, as well as the ability to post longer audio and video content and get half of users’ ads free. Publishers working with the platform will also be able to bypass the paywall, according to Musk.
“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” he added.
The remarks highlight how tenuous some of Musk’s initial plans for Twitter may be, and also the urgency he faces to increase revenue and profit for a company that has lost money for most of its history. Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, an amount he admitted was “obviously overpaid” for the company. He also lined up a substantial amount of debt financing to pay off the deal.
Since completing the acquisition of the social media platform last week, the billionaire has moved quickly to shake up Twitter, including dissolving the board and firing its top executives. In tweets over the weekend, Musk questioned his followers about the possibility of bringing back Vine, Twitter’s defunct short video service, and said “absolutely” in response to a user’s suggestion to rethink the platform’s character limits. . It’s unclear how committed Musk is to pursuing any or all of these changes.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted: “The entire verification process is being reworked now”.
Even before the deal was finalized, Musk hinted at the possibility of linking verification to a paid subscription service. In April, Musk said that paid Twitter subscribers “should receive an authentication checkmark.” In another tweet he said: “Price is likely to be ~$2/month, but paid 12 months upfront and account is uncheckmarked for 60 days (note CC chargebacks) and suspended without refund if used for fraud/spam.”
While the blue checkmark emerged as a status symbol for users, it was also designed to ensure that people can determine which accounts are authentic and which are not, particularly for celebrities, brands, and other influential accounts. If Musk were to create a paid barrier to verification, there are concerns that it could make it difficult to distinguish whether a notable name is a bot or not.
This article is a translation of the writing by Jennifer Korn to the website CNN Business.
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