Elon Musk has said Twitter Blue will charge $8 monthly for verification.
This is coming after criticisms trailed initial plans to charge subscribers $19.99 per month to get and stay verified.
Amid speculations of Twitter Blue’s $20 subscription, author Stephen King tweeted his concerns and got a response from Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal.
Musk on Tuesday tweeted that “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark”.
“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” he added.
The ICIR reported Twitter’s plan to upgrade it’s verified subscription from $4.99 a month, to $19.99 a month.
Twitter users have reacted to the news, and author Stephen King with about seven million followers tweeted that he should be paid instead.
$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 31, 2022
“$20 a month to keep my blue check?”
“They should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
Kings reply triggered Musk’s response and in a follow up reply, King wrote, “[i]t ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing.”
On Tuesday, Musk replied to King “[W]e need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers.
We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
“How about $8?,” he said.
The Chief Twit shared details of the update for verified users who would be able to post longer video and audio, get priority in replies, mentions and search, with more ads than free users.
He also added that publishers working with Twitter will get to bypass the paywall.
“This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators,” he said.
This reveals the urgency Musk faces to generate revenue for a purchase he admitted is “obviously overpaying” for the company.
At the initial stage before purchase, the CEO stated the possibility of instituting a paid subscription service.
In April, Musk said Twitter’s paid subscribers “should get an authentication checkmark”.
The blue tick is a status symbol for users, it’s designed for easy identification of authentic accounts, particularly for celebrities, brands and influential profiles.
Twitter’s new CEO made remarks condemning the platform’s content policies as strict. This paused some advertising deals which is the company’s main source of income.
