Twitter’s subscription service is becoming more expensive. Elon Musk, the owner and CEO of Twitter, announced today that Twitter Blue will now cost $8 per month in the United States, with pricing in other countries updated to reflect consumer purchasing power in those markets. Blue’s current monthly fee is $5, so the $3 increase represents a 60% cost increase.
Twitter aims to upgrade its features concurrently. If you subscribe, you’ll see fewer ads and be able to post longer videos and audio. Furthermore, it will give you priority in replies, mentions, and the platform’s search function—benefits Musk believes are critical for reducing spam on the platform. Twitter’s current “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.” Musk also hinted that verification would be linked to Twitter Blue memberships. Last but not least, Twitter Blue will support bypassing paywalls, though this feature will not be available immediately and will be dependent on Twitter forming the necessary publisher partnerships.
Days of speculation about how Twitter would change under Musk’s ownership resulted in Tuesday’s announcement. According to two separate reports published on Sunday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was considering raising the cost of Twitter Blue to as much as $20 per month and making a subscription required for verification. Musk showed up to reconsider the pricing after author Stephen King’s tweet criticizing the plan went viral. Musk stated, ” We need to pay the bills somehow,” Musk said. “Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”
Musk claimed that the verifications to Twitter Blue will enable the service to encourage content creators. The owner of Nibellion, one of Twitter’s most active and popular gaming news accounts, announced his exit from the platform on Monday, blaming Musk’s ownership of the company and its creator economics, among other factors. “I have miscalculated the value of my Twitter activity and realize that it is nothing worth supporting by itself for the vast majority of people,” Nibel said. “It is not me who is popular, but it is that work that is useful. It is not valuable by itself, but a comfortable timesaver, and I get that now.”
Leave this field empty if you're human:
