Twitter Blue is the microblogging platform’s subscription service—Twitter Blue– was launched earlier in some countries like Canada, the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Following the acrimonious takeover of the company by Musk on October 27
, the billionaire entrepreneur announced that users will now have to pay $8 per month to keep their blue ticks and gain access to some premium features under Twitter Blue.
On Sunday, Twitter user Prabhu Damodharan tagged Elon Musk and asked: “When can we expect to have the Twitter Blue roll out in India?” prompting Musk’s response that it will likely be available in “ less than a month.”
The subscription service has been launched for iOS users only and is yet to be announced for Android users worldwide.
After receiving a response from Musk, Damodharan went on to guess what the subscription fee could be for Indian users. Prabhu said it could be “Rs 649 or so” and wondered whether this would be “…incl (sic) GST or if it will take it close to 10$.”
The pay-for-verification plan is part of Musk’s push to boost the social network’s revenues. This is in line with numerous other changes that the billionaire has said he will introduce at Twitter, following his buyout of the company on October 27.
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On Friday, nearly half of the company’s ( global ) employees were sacked. ET reported on Friday that nearly 180 of the 230-odd employees at the Twitter India office had been let go of.
This was done in a bid to cut costs just as companies were looking to pause advertising on the platform in order to see how it would operate under its new owner. Musk said he saw no other choice but to let go of people as Twitter was losing $4 million a day and said that those who were fired got three months of severance.
Soon after closing the $ 44 billion buyout of the social media platform last month, Musk in one of his first moves had sacked former CEO Parag Agrawal and three other top executives.
On Saturday, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey addressed the mass sackings and apologised for what happened. Dorsey, who had quit as CEO in November 2021 and left the board of directors in May this year , said he owned the responsibility for the (current) situation. “I grew the company size too quickly. I apologise for that,” he said.
New Features
In an update on its App store on Sunday the company said “Starting today, we’re adding great new features to Twitter Blue, and have more on the way soon. Get Twitter Blue for $7.99/month if you sign up now.
Blue checkmark: Power to the people: Your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow,”
It also said that the verified users will get various features including half the ads but more relevant than before. “Since you’re supporting Twitter in the battle against the bots, we’re going to reward you with half the ads and make them twice as relevant,” it said.
The verified or blue tick owners will be able to post longer videos and their content will get a priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches. “This helps lower the visibility of scams, spam, and bots,” the company said.
While the update is visible on the App Store, Twitter employee Esther Crawford tweeted that the new Blue isn’t live yet but some people may see updates because Twitter is testing and pushing changes in real-time.
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