In Elon Musk's first significant update to the social media platform, the company updated its software in the Apple App Store on Saturday and started charging $8 for coveted blue check verification marks.
A week after Musk paid $44 billion to acquire control of the social media company, a change has been made. The majority of Twitter's personnel were laid off, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a millionaire businessman, promised to start raising user fees.
Twitter announced that users who "join up now" for $7.99 per month will have the blue checkmark next to their user names, "exactly like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians you already follow."
Prior to Musk's leadership, blue checkmarks next to a user's name signified Twitter had verified that the account belonged to the person or business claiming it. It wasn't immediately obvious whether or how Twitter intended to verify the user's identity in addition to demanding a charge.
Other advantages of the update, according to the iOS notification, include "half the advertisements," the capacity to publish lengthier videos to Twitter, and priority ranking for high-quality material.
Requests for comment from Twitter and Musk through Tesla were not immediately fulfilled.
In an effort to monetise the social media network and reduce its dependence on adverts, Twitter's new CEO announced the improvements earlier this week. Most users can currently use Twitter for free.
In a different post, Musk also stated that Twitter's "improving search is a key priority."
When a commenter pointed out that YouTube provides creators 55% of ad money, he said in another tweet, "We can beat that."
"The ridiculousness of notepad snapshots will soon be put an end to with the addition of the ability to attach long-form text to tweets on Twitter. the monetization of creators of all types of content, "In a tweet, Musk continued.
The cost of the Twitter Blue update was still $4.99 as of Saturday.
The new service was not yet online, according to Twitter's early-stage products executive Esther Crawford, who spoke just after users could access the upgrade.
Although the new Blue isn't yet live, she noted in a tweet that "some people may see us making adjustments because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time."
Crawford gained notoriety earlier this week when she retweeted a picture of herself dozing off on the floor of the Twitter office in San Francisco following Musk's takeover.
"Sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork when your team is working nonstop to meet deadlines."
Crawford gained notoriety earlier this week when she retweeted a picture of herself dozing off on the floor of the Twitter office in San Francisco following Musk's takeover.
"Sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork when your team is working nonstop to meet deadlines."
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