Elon Musk-promoted Twitter has started rolling out its $8 fee for blue check verification marks in Apple’s App Store — as part of enhancing revenue for the social media platform.
Elon Musk last week took over the social media company in a $44 billion deal. The billionaire and CEO of electric car maker Tesla also cut half the staff at Twitter.
Twitter, in an update to Apple iOS devices on Saturday, said those who sign up now for $7.99 a month can receive the blue checkmark next to their user names.
Twitter earlier used to offer blue check marks – without a fee — next to a person’s user name to active users, celebrities, large enterprises, etc.
“Adding the blue tick to the subscription could boost subscription-based revenues to Twitter. However, an online class system could emerge, as it may become a question of which accounts can pay for the blue tick— rather than which accounts deserve it on merit,” Rachel Foster Jones, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, said.
It was not immediately clear how or if Twitter planned to verify the identity of the user beyond charging a fee.
Twitter is yet to reveal its action plan towards existing blue badge owners if they do not subscribe to the costly subscription plan.
Twitter, according to the Apple iOS notification, is offering other benefits such as half the ads, the ability to post longer videos to Twitter and priority ranking for quality content.
Twitter’s update said the new paid service for blue badge will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It will offer the fee service in other countries in phases.
“As soon as we confirm it’s working well in the initial set of countries and we have the translation work done, it will roll out worldwide,” Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Twitter Blue will roll out in India in less than a month, Elon Musk tweeted in reply to a question from a follower.
In a separate tweet, Musk also added that fixing search is a top priority on Twitter.
“We can beat that,” he replied in another tweet when a user pointed out that YouTube gives creators 55 percent of ad revenue.
“Twitter will add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots. Followed by creator monetization for all forms of content,” Musk added in a tweet.
As of Saturday, the update to Twitter Blue remained at the old price of $4.99, Reuters news report said.
Twitter’s early stage products executive Esther Crawford said the new service was not yet live, shortly after the update was available to users.
“The new Blue isn’t live yet — the sprint to our launch continues but some folks may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time,” Esther Crawford said in a tweet.
