online service
Musk is apparently also considering paid Twitter
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is rebuilding the online service Twitter after his takeover. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/POOL/dpa/Archive
Ever since Musk took over Twitter, things have been chaotic at times. First employees were laid off, now they are apparently supposed to return. Now another report on a payment model is causing a stir.
According to a media report, while looking for new business models for Twitter, the new owner Elon Musk is also considering charging for the use of the online service. Musk discussed this in a recent meeting with his advisor David Sacks, wrote the well-connected tech reporter Casey Newton on his blog “Platformer” on Tuesday night.
One concept is to let Twitter use free of charge for a limited time and then charge money, it said. Musk, who has communicated on his Twitter account for the company since the acquisition, did not comment.
Verification ticks should cost eight dollars a month
One of the first innovations under Musk is a plan to give verification ticks to all customers with an eight-dollar-a-month subscription. So far, they have been given out free of charge by Twitter to celebrities, politicians and companies after an examination. Musk argued that authentication through payment services and the app platforms of Apple and Google is sufficient, so that Twitter can do without its own examination.
Musk had also announced that subscribers should only see half of the advertising. The eight-dollar Twitter subscription could cost money in the USA, wrote “Platformer”, citing insiders. Because this halving of advertisements reduces advertising revenue per user in the USA by an average of six dollars, it said. After deducting the platform fees from Apple and Google, Twitter can earn less than before from these accounts.
Part of the dismissed employees should come back
Newton was also the first to report at the weekend that Twitter wanted to quickly bring some employees back after about every second job was cut. The financial service Bloomberg later wrote that several dozen dismissed employees had received such a return offer.
The technology blog The Verge, meanwhile, citing internal Twitter documents, reported that the service had gained 15 million daily users since the publication of the last business figures in the summer. At the end of the second quarter, Twitter had 237.8 million daily users who were seeing ads on the platform.
The document is a question and answer for Twitter’s sales department so employees can refer to it in discussions with advertisers. Several large advertisers – including Volkswagen and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer – announced that they would suspend their ads on Twitter until Twitter’s future course in dealing with questionable content was clarified.
One of the questions is whether Twitter’s content rules also apply to Musk, wrote “The Verge”. The answer is a tight “yes”. A few days ago, Musk had spread an unfounded conspiracy theory about the attack on US politician husband Paul Pelosi – and deleted the tweet after a few hours without comment.