Elon Musk has bowed to public opinion, reviewing his initially proposed $20 charge for Twitter verification to $8 on Tuesday.
It all started on Monday, when Jason Calacanis, angel investor and entrepreneur, conducted a poll asking users; how much would you pay to be verified & get a blue check mark on Twitter? More than 81% of nearly two million respondents voted no, while more than 10% others chose to pay $5 per month.
Interesting
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
The poll was followed by further criticism by users, with some saying they’d rather quit using Twitter than pay a dime for their verification badge.
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We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
The poll undoubtedly has triggered the reversal of the earlier proposed $20 per month charge. Musk has now redesigned the plan, offering a cheaper rate that he believes will suit everyone.
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
Musk said as part of the plan, “price” will be “adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.” He added that under the plan, users 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.
“And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us.
“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” he said.
“There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians,” he added.
Musk’s Twitter acquisition is largely believed to be overpriced, leaving a large room of deficit to be filled. Musk had at the early stage of the deal promised investors that he would make the company more profitable and he has been strategizing to fulfill that promise.
The plan is to use the revenue from Twitter Blue and other monetized features of the app to increase the company’s quarterly turn over besides the revenue generated through ads.
I’m told 300K of $TWTR ‘s 238M mDAUs are authenticated. If 50% pay the $20/month blue check fee, that’s $18M/qtr vs 2Q ad rev of $1.2B (so 1.5% of rev). As some have pointed out, the bigger opportunity is for those not authenticated. I have no idea how big that TAM is. https://t.co/Fme4IlRAHD
— Gary Black (@garyblack00) October 31, 2022
Nearly $300,000 quarterly from the blue check fees in addition to the ad revenue, will ensure a significant uptick in Twitter’s revenue growth month-on-month.
It is not yet clear how many users will be willing to buy into the plan with $8 per month fee, what is clear is that Musk is out to monetize many features of Twitter that were previously free and he is not going back.
“To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8,” Musk said on Wednesday.