After much speculation, Elon has finally announced that Twitter Blue will cost $8 a month. The monthly bill will be needed to keep a user's verification status. This means that there is a 60 percent price increase from the previous Twitter Blue subscription, which was $5, as mentioned in Engadget.
Although, this is still a big change from what was originally being considered, which was $20 per month for a subscription. The price was lowered after a tweet from Stephen King, which appeared to criticize the amount needed to be paid. Musk expressed that bills needed to be paid and could not rely on advertisers alone. The Tesla CEO then compromised with $8.
What's New with Twitter Blue
Beforehand, the verification status was limited to known personalities like celebrities, journalists, politicians, artists, organizations, and more. Musk believes that all users should be given a chance to verify their accounts, as mentioned in 9To5Mac. He expressed this in a tweet referring to the verification system as a "lords & peasants system."
Twitter Blue's prices in other countries will vary as they will be adjusted for the purchasing power of the consumers within that market. This makes the Twitter Blue subscription available for all, so they can enjoy its perks.
A subscription will not only provide a verification badge but other advantages too. This includes a user seeing fewer ads in their timeline. They will also be able to post longer videos and audio, which has already been tested before Musk purchased the platform. Subscribers will also be prioritized in replies, mentions, and Twitter's search feature.
The Tesla CEO thinks that this will be the solution to the amount of spam on the social networking site. Depending on the publisher partnerships that Twitter will create, subscribers may be able to get past paywalls. This may lessen payments, in the long run, depending on the activities of the users.
There are still no official announcements or dates as to when Twitter Blue will be made available to the public.
Changes with Twitter
Musk has not been quiet about the changes he wants to implement for the platform. One of these changes is Twitter being a private company again, which means there will be no shareholders or board of directors. Musk also ordered 12 hours of work a day for its managers, and suspended Twitter's moderation policies.
The tech mogul has already ordered layoffs within the company, which could reach as much as half of its 7,500 employees. He has already started with former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and former CFO Ned Segal. Reports say that the layoffs were to get employees to agree to his demands, and to get engineers to show him the codes they were working on.
Some prominent Twitter accounts weren't happy about the takeover either. There are already known personalities that decided to leave the platform. One of these is Nibel, the owner of @Nibellion, as mentioned in Kotaku. Other than not having enough support on Patreon, he also said that it was because of Elon Musk's latest acquisition.
Nibel expressed that he no longer trusted the platform and Musk's "seemingly infinite immaturity." He also mentioned that Twitter was doomed to die a slow death, so he shouldn't waste any more time.
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