Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, hinted at the possibility of an even more expensive Twitter Blue subscription tier in a post on Saturday. Musk asserts that he and his already small running staff are developing plans to offer Twitter Blue customers a "higher expensive" subscription that includes "zero advertisements."
Since Musk's tweet is the main source of information regarding the new Twitter Blue tier, the complete specifics are mostly unclear. A request for comment from Mashable was not met with an immediate response from Twitter. Although Musk said in court this week that just because he tweets something, "does not imply others believe it or will act accordingly," in principle, Musk is serious about an ad-free tier coming to Twitter. So, it's uncertain whether or not we should accept his claims or not
Users of Twitter Blue currently have the option to subscribe for $7.99 per month, which includes a feature that will reportedly result in 50% fewer advertisements. A blue "confirmed" checkmark, the ability to modify and undo tweets, a reader mode for lengthy threads, and prioritised ranking in conversations are features that already exist, nevertheless. The platform is also expected to introduce "Coins" to reward producers (similar to TikTok) and the opportunity to turn off the divisive view counts feature.
Musk argues that frequent and large advertising are consuming the platform, which is one of the reasons why he wants to provide an ad-free Twitter experience. In a last-ditch effort to convince ad buyers to come back, Twitter was reportedly willing to match advertisers' bids up to $250,000, according to a Wall Street Journal report published a week before to this revelation. Musk also states in the same thread that plans for a creator fund are underway in an effort to encourage content producers to stick with Twitter.
The timing of Musk's statement and Twitter's abrupt decision to discontinue supporting third-party clients who had previously used the platform suggest that the two incidents may be connected. The Verge reports that Twitter does not generate advertising money when its API is utilised by third-party clients, thus Musk was likely trying to get more advertising revenue by ignoring these third-party developers. The extra-expensive paid tier, according to The Verge, is just Musk's way of asking users to contribute more to Twitter's mounting financial problems.
The drama on Twitter never seems to end, does it? But perhaps a pricey, ad-free version will ease the suffering.
