Elon Musk floats $8 Twitter subscription that features verification, long-form video and audio posting and fewer adverts
After a lot uncertainty round Twitter Blue’s revamp, Elon Musk laid out the corporate’s strategy. He mentioned that the brand new paid plan will value $8 per 30 days — one thing that he talked about in a reply to Stephen King’s tweet. Plus, the worth might be adjusted in response to buying energy parity of the nation, hinting towards a worldwide launch of Twitter Blue.
Musk’s tweet additionally says that the social community’s present verification system is akin to a “lords & peasants” system. His tweet in regards to the new paid plan indicated providing verification to subscribers.
Musk additionally famous a few of the options that may roll out with this new plan, together with fewer adverts, precedence in replies (one thing which verified handles get by means of the “Verified” notification channel) mentions and search, and the power to submit longer movies than the present restrict of two minutes 20 seconds
Musk tends of fixing his thoughts shortly, so we must always take this announcement with a grain of salt. These won’t be the ultimate set of options when Twitter rolls out its new subscription plan.
Earlier this week, experiences famous that Musk and Twitter are revamping the verification course of, and it might involve a fee as high as $20 per month. Nonetheless, the billionaire has appeared to choose the $8 per 30 days pricing for now. The experiences additionally famous that the present set of verified customers will lose their blue checkmark in the event that they don’t pay for the brand new paid plan. Musk hasn’t talked about any such measure within the new Twitter thread in regards to the subscription plan.
Earlier in the present day, reported that Twitter is ending assist for ad-free articles offered under its Twitter Blue program. The corporate despatched an electronic mail to taking part writer companions about this system’s finish.
Whereas Twitter is ending funds and partnerships with the present set of publishers, Musk mentioned that it’ll create a brand new program for bypassing paywalls for publishers prepared to work with the corporate. He additionally talked about that the subscription income stream will assist Twitter in rewarding content material creators — however didn’t specify how.
An important element lacking from this thread is a timeline of the rollout for this new paid plan. A report by CNBC instructed the Tesla and SpaceX exec has set very aggressive deadlines for the Twitter Blue revamp, with some staff having to work 12-hour shifts.
At present, Twitter Blue is obtainable within the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Notably, knowledge from analytics agency Sensor Tower means that Twitter’s app has generated solely $6.4 million in in-app purchases to date, with Blue being the top purchase. Musk & co. will hope that this new subscription plan works higher than that.
