Billionaire Elon Musk , CEO of Twitter, said Saturday, April 29, 2023, that the social media platform will allow media publishers to charge users, on a per-article basis, with one click, describing it as a win-win for both public and media organizations.
Musk added that this feature, which will be launched in May 2023, will make users who do not “sign up for a monthly subscription pay a higher price for each article that appears in front of them casually and wants to read it.”
Musk had announced, on Friday, April 28, 2023, that Twitter would deduct 10% of the proceeds from content subscriptions after the first year, stressing that the company would not deduct this percentage of revenue during the first twelve months, and made it clear that this includes subscriptions to long texts and video clips for several hours.
Since Musk assumed the presidency of Twitter, he has accelerated a number of changes in organization and products, and the company has introduced the blue verification mark as a paid service, and reduced the number of employees by about 80%.
Musk’s plans for Twitter Blue include giving subscribers’ replies more prominence on users’ default “For You” page, and the tweets they interact with will get more exposure. Musk said that the shift to paid verification is necessary in order to eliminate automated bot accounts and provide an alternative source of income to ads, which used to represent the bulk of Twitter’s income.
Musk also made adjustments to the company to increase revenues, after the social media platform witnessed a decrease in advertising income during the year 2022, in the period preceding Musk’s acquisition of the company, in October 2022.
Also, in the latest controversy since his acquisition of Twitter, Bloomberg revealed that Twitter is no longer independent after it became part of a newly established company under the banner of X Corp.
According to the agency’s report, which was published on April 11, 2023, this matter has increased uncertainty and speculation about what billionaire Elon Musk intends to do with the social media platform.
Where a document filed in a California court, on April 4, 2023, indicated that Twitter had merged with a company called X Corp, and the agency indicated that the merger was not announced until after the social media company’s lawyers were forced to disclose it in an ongoing lawsuit, Concerning losing congressional candidate and right-wing activist Laura Loomer.
The lawsuit was filed against Twitter and its former CEO, Jack Dorsey, in 2020 by Lomer.
