Twitter will now be charging users $7.99 for a monthly subscription that includes its coveted “blue checkmark” verification, the company announced in its latest software update on Saturday.
“Get Twitter Blue for $7.99/month if you sign up now. Blue checkmark: Power to the people: Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow,” the update noted.
The new subscription model will also make good on Elon Musk’s earlier promises that those who sign up will see half as many advertisements, have the ability to post longer videos, and get priority ranking when posting.
The social-media platform’s new leader has been vocal about Twitter’s need to revamp its outdated business model since he initially agreed to the $44 billion acquisition of the company back in April 2022. Speaking that month at a TED-talk conference, Musk said Twitter’s business model was “not a way to make money.”
Although the company has been publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since 2013, it has rarely made a profit. Musk has been outspoken about Twitter’s mismanagement, poor advertising policies, and need for new ideas to turn the company into a profitable enterprise. He has moved fast to enact several new initiatives since taking control of the company in October. Close to 30 percent of his original $44 billion purchase was fueled by debt and servicing it will cost over a billion dollars annually.
The announcement for the update comes on the heels of Musk’s laying off nearly 50 percent of Twitter’s 7,500-person workforce in a bid to cut costs. The company, Musk noted on Twitter, was losing millions of dollars a day under its current structure. “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted on Friday following the announcement.
When asked whether the new subscription model will encourage impersonators and identity fraud, Musk said: “Twitter will suspend the account attempting impersonation and keep the money! So if scammers want to do this a million times, that’s just a whole bunch of free money.”
Accompanying the tweet was a Clint Eastwood GIF from Dirty Harry: “Go ahead, make my day.”