Elon Musk mulls putting Twitter behind a paywall as company reports it actually GAINED users
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Elon Musk is reportedly considering putting Twitter behind a paywall in another bid to monetize the site, as the company reports that it has actually gained users since Tesla’s CEO took over last week.
The 51-year-old billionaire has discussed the idea of creating a paywall for all Twitter users with tech investor David Sacks, sources familiar with Musk’s plans said. platform game on Monday.
The proposal comes as the company reported that it has gained more users since he became CEO, tweeting over the weekend: “The number of Twitter users worldwide has increased significantly since the deal was announced.”
It remains unclear what a paywall for Twitter might look like, but one person familiar with the plans said it would be an option to let everyone use the site for a set amount of time each month and pay a subscription to continue browsing. .
The amount a user spends to get past the paywall is then in addition to the $8 Twitter users could spend each month for verified blue checks, as Musk wants to monetize the site he bought for $44 billion.
But the SpaceX founder is also struggling to maintain the sites’ existing revenue streams after several advertisers fled the site over fears the platform wouldn’t be a “safe place for brands.”
Elon Musk would discuss the possibility of adding a paywall for all Twitter users. He is pictured here leaving the Twitter HQ in New York City
It’s just one of many ways Musk plans to monetize the social media company he bought for $44 billion
Over the weekend, Musk tweeted that ‘the number of Twitter users worldwide has increased significantly since the deal was announced’
In an apparent effort to get advertisers like General Mills, Audi and Pfizer back on the site, Twitter executives on Monday released an internal FAQ for the sales team to refer to when speaking with potential advertisers.
The FAQ, obtained by The edgestresses that more users have joined the social media site since Musk took over.
It says Twitter’s daily users — a measure advertisers use to determine a site’s profitability — have grown by more than 20 percent, while “Twitter’s largest market, the US, is growing even faster.”
According to the FAQ, Twitter added more than 15 million mDAUs crossing the quarter-billion mark at the end of the second quarter when it stopped reporting financial information as a publicly traded company.
At the time, Twitter reported that it had 237.8 million mDAUs and an annual growth rate of 16.6 percent.
General Mills, which makes Cheerios, Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs, announced last week that it was pausing ads on its website
Oreo maker Mondelez International has also reportedly paused Twitter ad spending
The FAQ was also intended to reassure advertisers about content moderation and Musk’s leadership.
It was shared by Alex Josephson, a 10-year corporate veteran who is now the vice president of Twitter Next, a team that has helped brands create campaigns.
The memo states, according to The Verge, that “the level of hate speech remains within historical norms, accounting for 0.25 percent to 0.45 percent of tweets per day between hundreds of millions.”
It also emphasizes that Musk will be subject to the same rules and content moderation as any other Twitter user, and reiterates Musk’s claims that Twitter will not change its content moderation policy until it forms and convenes a “content moderation board with widely differing views.” ‘
And it notes that Twitter Blue’s planned refresh “will not affect the exit of verified accounts at this time” and that “major brand advertisers who have already been verified will now have an ‘official’ label under their name on the relaunch.” from Twitter Blue this week.’
Twitter rolled out its new Twitter Blue subscription this weekend, only to later postpone its launch until after the midterm elections
Twitter rolled out the new subscription plan this weekend, later delaying its launch until after the midterm elections.
As part of the refurbishment, the company has — largely through Musk’s personal account – said it will launch new features such as fewer ads, the ability to post longer videos, and a feature that allows users to prioritize replies, mentions, and searches.
But the proposal has been met with much skepticism from Twitter staff and users alike.
The existing version of Twitter Blue only had a little over 10,000 subscribers, according to Platformer, and the new version will be 37.5 percent more expensive, forcing verified account holders to pay $8 a month to keep their blue tick.
Employees had reportedly tried to sell Musk and Sacks with the idea of asking business accounts only to pay for the extra features, as many use Twitter to reach a wider audience.
And, as some employees pointed out, the new feature that would cut Twitter app ad loading time in half would also cost business revenues, with some estimates showing Twitter earns about $6 in ad revenue per user in the United States. States will lose under the schedule.
But, Platformer reports, those ideas were rejected in favor of offering large-scale verification, though it remains unclear how many people or businesses would sign up for the new experience.