The new Twitter is emerging.
Since finalizing the $44 billion deal giving him control of the social network on Oct. 27, Elon Musk got to work right away.
He enlisted the help of relatives and loyalists to reflect on the first steps that will allow him to make his mark on the microblogging website without delay.
While Twitter does not generate as much profit as YouTube and Facebook, the platform plays a central role in public discourse. It is a kind of agora. Musk himself defines Twitter as the town square of our time.
The future of Twitter is currently arousing passions on all sides.
The general public and political circles want to know what Musk, who defines himself as a "free speech absolutist," will decide on the content management policy. Basically which tweets will be acceptable on the platform.
To respond to this, the billionaire has set up a council which will decide on the reactivation of banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump. Musk did not give more details on the composition of this council or when it would convene.
Price Adjusted by Country
The other big question which the tech tycoon is trying to answer is how to make money with Twitter, which has cost him dearly. Various options are currently being tested.
The billionaire has just announced the first big decision. Users will have to pay for the verification of their accounts. Currently, the service, which uses small blue badges to indicate that a person's or brand's account is genuine, is free.
Specifically, verification is expected to be part of Twitter Blue, a paid plan that offers additional features for heavy Twitter users. It now costs $4.99 per month and offers additional options like the ability to organize your Twitter feed, to cancel tweets with typos, or to set a non-fungible token (NFT) as your profile picture.
Blue's price will almost double. It will increase to $8 per month in the U.S, Musk announced on Nov. 1.
"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," the billionaire posted , ending several days of speculation.
The price will be adjusted by country and according to local purchasing power, he said. This means that Blue could, for example, cost only a few cents in developing countries.
Blue badges, used mostly by brands, governments, celebrities or journalists, will be part of the paid features starting next week. Subscribers will now have to pay to get them.
Besides verification, Musk listed a series of benefits Blue subscribers will have.
"You will also get:
- Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
- Ability to post long video & audio
- Half as many ads," the billionaire said.
Incentivize Creators and Publishers
He promised that this new source of income would also be a good thing for publishers who will be able to have a paywall.
"And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us," the tycoon said.
He didn't provide more details.
The platform will also take the opportunity to remunerate creators. Musk hopes to bring back to the social network many influencers who have emigrated to competitors where revenue sharing is more favorable to them.
"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," the serial entrepreneur added.
The news seems to have been well received by creators.
"Creator payments is HUGE to incentivize content creation. love this idea :)," a Twitter user commented.
"Absolutely essential. Creators need to make a living!" the billionaire responded.
In the end, the new owner of Twitter decided to cut the pear in half and avoid a drastic increase in the price of Blue to $19.99 as reported previously.
He also explained the price increase at a time when consumers are impacted by inflation, which is at its highest in 40 years, as a way also to eliminate spam bots or fake accounts which most often disseminate misinformation. and hate speech.
"The bots won't like this," bitcoin billionaire Michael Saylor commented.
"Yes, this will destroy the bots. If a paid Blue account engages in spam/scam, that account will be suspended," Musk quipped. :Essentially, this raises the cost of crime on Twitter by several orders of magnitude."
For months, the serial entrepreneur has been denouncing the presence of fake accounts or spam bots on Twitter. He explained that one of the reasons he would acquire Twitter was to solve this problem of fake accounts often created by artificial intelligence and which, according to experts, contribute to the rapid spread of hate speech and misinformation.
It is currently unclear whether forcing people to subscribe to Blue to have a verified account is going to be a winning formula. When the first news articles raised this hypothesis with a price of $19.99 per month, many Twitter users, including science fiction and horror novelist Stephen King, expressed their anger.
TheStreet is running a poll asking Twitter users if they'll pay the $8 a month. You can vote by following this link: https://twitter.com/TheStreet/status/1587513910516744193.
