20 euros per month for the blue tick! The new Twitter boss Elon Musk will demand money from verified users in the future.
The tick guarantees the authenticity of the Twitter profile and has so far been free of charge. It is mainly available to celebrities, companies, as well as users with a large number of followers such as politicians and journalists.
On Monday night, the technology blogs “Platformer” and “The Verge” reported that verification will soon only be available for “Twitter Blue” subscribers. The premium service has cost $4.99 a month so far.
“The entire verification process is being overhauled,” Musk, who took charge of the social media platform on Friday, tweeted on Sunday. The hefty price increase is part of this revamp. However: As “The Verge” reports, citing internal correspondence, the 20 euros per month are not yet set in stone. What is certain, however, is that the price should rise.
▶︎ Twitter wants to add more features to the premium offer to make the subscription more attractive.
According to the reports, existing verified users will be given 90 days to subscribe to “Twitter Blue” after the change – otherwise they will lose their tick (and then be more difficult to distinguish from similarly named fake accounts, for example). The current “Twitter Blue” was introduced about a year ago and allows subscribers, among other things, to see ad-free articles from some publishers.
Tesla boss Elon Musk paid around $44 billion for Twitter. The money came in part from sales of his Tesla shares — but also from contributions from investors and loans that need to be serviced. Twitter was recently in the red. (rob)