Elon Musk, Twitter new owner has floated the idea of charging Twitter users $8 a month for the Blue service, which includes its sought-after “verified” badge, as he seeks other revenue source for the social media network and make it less reliant on ads.
“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday. “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.
Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
He said that benefits of the subscription will include “Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam – Ability to post long video & audio – Half as many ads.”
Musk added that “there will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians.”
The idea, which has yet to be finalized, comes less than a week after Musk acquired the service for $44 billion as part of a plan that includes taking the company private.
A blue check mark next to a person’s user name on the social media platform implies Twitter has confirmed that the account belongs to the person or company claiming it.
In June last, Twitter launched a subscription service called Twitter Blue, which offers access to features such as an option to edit tweets.
Venture capitalist Jason Calacanis, who is serving as one of Musk’s advisors on the Twitter acquisition, posted a poll on Twitter over the weekend asking how much people would be willing to pay for a blue checkmark. The options were: $5, $10, or $15 a month, or nothing at all. As of time of this report on Wednesday, nearly 81.6% of the nearly 2 million votes were for the “wouldn’t pay,” option.
How much would you pay to be verified & get a blue check mark on Twitter?
— jason@calacanis.com (@Jason) October 31, 2022
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
