X to charge a $1 subscription fee for basic features – ‘Like’, ‘Retweet’, & ‘Reply’; know the details here

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  • Musk announces $1 charge on X’s basic features – ‘Like’, ‘Retweet’, & ‘Reply’; details here

Musk announces $1 charge on X’s basic features – ‘Like’, ‘Retweet’, & ‘Reply’; details here

Elon Musk has proposed this approach to combating the platform's bot issue. He claims that instituting even a small fee would significantly cut down on the number of spam and bot registrations.

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October 18, 2023 15:53 IST
Musk announces $1 charge on X’s basic features – ‘Like’, ‘Retweet’, & ‘Reply’; details here
Musk announces $1 charge on X’s basic features – ‘Like’, ‘Retweet’, & ‘Reply’; details here

New Delhi: X is now conducting a trial for a new subscription plan that will provide more features than the current X Pro (formerly Twitter Blue) plan.

All users who want to engage in any way with the social network, as opposed to only those on the premium plan, will be required to pay the new monthly fee. The annual cost of the new subscription plan is $1.

Scammers have continued to utilise X premium accounts to target customers despite Musk’s implementation of the $11 monthly X premium blue tick product for iPhones in the US, £11 for UK users, and A$19.

Elon Musk has proposed this approach to combating the platform’s bot issue. He claims that instituting even a small fee would significantly cut down on the number of spam and bot registrations.

Musk wants X to be his “everything” app, therefore charging new users is part of his plan to diversify X’s income streams beyond advertising.

Users in New Zealand and the Philippines will become the first to sign up for an account and will need to verify their phone number and pay the US$1 yearly charge before they can use the site’s full set of features, including the ability to comment, like, respond, repost, quote, bookmark, and more.

Elon Musk’s X official post came after the new subscription package was announced. He said “Read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”

X has termed the experiment “Not a Bot,” and users who refuse to pay the fee will not have their profiles deleted but will be unable to create new content or interact with existing postings by liking, commenting on, or bookmarking them. However, monitoring other posts shouldn’t cause any difficulties.

X justifies the usage of the membership price in a blog post by stating that doing so would allow them to test out a potentially effective method to assist them in fighting bots and spammers on X while maintaining a reasonable level of platform accessibility. Existing users are not harmed by this test, it said.

X’s new premium membership plan, X Pro, underwent a major redesign earlier this year. In India, the cost of the premium plan is Rs 650 if you sign up for it from the Twitter website. The X Pro is Rs 900 for app purchasers on Android and iOS.

X seeks additional revenue streams. The controversial takeover by Elon Musk last year accelerated the push to establish new cash sources. The corporation owed $13 billion. Concerns about content safety guidelines drove some sponsors away, worsening the problem. Due to this debt, X pays $1.2 billion in interest annually.

In a meeting with bankers, X CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed fresh revenue ambitions, Bloomberg said. The report indicates X will launch three premium service tiers. It aims to add shopping and payment facilities to boost revenue.

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