Internet
Twitter brings new paid subscription to Germany
Twitter now has a new paid subscription. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
The new Twitter boss Elon Musk urgently needs new sources of revenue. A paid subscription is now being introduced in Germany. Musk also promises a financial benefit for subscription users.
Twitter also made its new paid subscription Blue available to users in Germany on Friday. The paid offer is part of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s plan to create another business pillar alongside advertising revenue.
After the Twitter purchase, Musk had the Blue offer, which was previously available in some countries, converted. In addition to a blue tick in the profile, which previously only existed with personal verification, paying users are currently given the opportunity to publish longer videos.
A further advantage for the future is that tweets from subscription customers will be placed more prominently. They should also only see half as much advertising. However, both functions have been promised for “soon” for several months.
Musk also promised a financial benefit on Friday. Twitter also places advertisements between replies to a tweet. If the authors of the tweet are paying Blue customers, the advertising revenue will be shared with them, Musk wrote on Twitter. He did not provide any information on what proportion of the revenue should end up with the users.
The European Blue prices are roughly based on the US values: With monthly payment, the subscription costs eight euros, if you get it for a year, 84 euros are due.
The acquisition cost $44 billion
When the changed Blue offer was launched in the USA, there was initially chaos because everyone immediately got the blue tick and some users took advantage of this to create fake profiles for well-known brands and celebrities. Measures against this were planned during a break of several weeks.
Musk paid for most of the $44 billion acquisition out of his own pocket. But he also burdened Twitter with billions in debt that must now be serviced. Since advertising revenue has fallen since the purchase, Twitter is even more dependent than before on new sources of revenue.