Twitter owner Elon Musk announced on Saturday, January 21, in a series of messages on the social network, that the latter will soon offer a “more expensive subscription which will allow you to no longer have advertising”. This would be a radical change in business model from Twitter, which has so far relied on targeted advertising for revenue, before launching a first paid subscription in mid-December 2022. .
This new zero-ad subscription will be part of a broader strategy, announced by the American billionaire via a tweet, to overhaul advertising on the social network. “Ads are too frequent and too big on Twitter. We will act on these two parameters in the coming weeks.”a écrit M. Musk.
Ads are too frequent on Twitter and too big. Taking steps to address both in coming weeks.
The social network has been facing major economic difficulties since its takeover by Mr. Musk at the end of October 2022. The company initially laid off around half of its 7,500 employees. At the end of December, the man who is also at the helm of Tesla (electric cars) and SpaceX (space launchers) had estimated that Twitter could achieve a turnover of around 3 billion dollars this year, a contraction of 41% by compared to 2021.
“Cut costs like crazy”
The decisions taken by Mr. Musk have scared off a good part of the main advertisers, frightened by the return to the platform of people previously banned for racist or conspiratorial messages. To compensate, the multi-billionaire, who explained that he had to “Cut costs like crazy” in order to avoid insolvency, count on subscription formulas, starting with Twitter Blue, offered between 8 and 11 dollars (between 7.40 and 10.10 euros) per month depending on the subscription method, and now this new offer coming without advertising.
Another sign – more anecdotal – of the hunt for funds, the company held an auction on Wednesday offering 631 lots of furniture and decoration, including a huge light installation representing the famous blue bird, sold for 40,000 dollars. For about a month, Elon Musk has also been looking for his successor at the head of the San Francisco company, after a poll showed that 57% of the 17 million participating users are in favor of his departure.