In less than 72 hours of his complete takeover, the new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, has begun making big changes to the social media platform. From firing top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and CFO Ned Segal, Twitter is set to charge $20 per month as subscription fees from users with verified accounts.
The social media platform which is set to reportedly effect this change from November 7th would see the Twitter badge subscription go from $4.99 per month to $19.99. The fee of approximately $20 is the same price as a premium Netflix subscription.
According to reports, once the policy falls through verified accounts would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue badge. It is unsure if the new payment plan would activate new features already on Twitterblue including edit button, undo a tweet, ability to upload a 10 minutes video and organize a bookmark.
By the numbers
There are about 400,000 verified accounts on Twitter. With a mandatory payment of $20 per month, Twitter could generate $8 million per month and $96 million per year if all the verified accounts keep the blue badge.
The big picture
Mr. Elon Musk undoubtedly has plans to increase Twitter’s revenue by five times according to the New York Times. Increasing the subscription fee of the Twitter blue tick is definitely a step in that direction. However, this step would reduce the number of users seeking the tick.
What you should know
Other leading social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok do not charge users to get verified.