social media
Musk considering Twitter fees after takeover
Elon Musk accuses Twitter of restricting freedom of speech. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
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Elon Musk had already indicated that he thought a subscription model would be better for Twitter. Now he promises that professional users could be asked to pay.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has confirmed that after taking over Twitter, he wants to rely more on a subscription model for the online service. “Twitter will always be free for casual users but may cost a little for commercial/government users,” he tweeted.
The 50-year-old boss of the electric car manufacturer Tesla wants to take over Twitter and accuses the short message service of restricting freedom of speech on the platform too much. Musk has agreed a deal worth around $44 billion with Twitter’s board of directors, but is dependent on enough shareholders giving him their shares. Twitter and Musk aim to complete the acquisition by the end of the year.
Twitter currently makes its money almost exclusively from advertising, mainly in the form of tweets, which companies can inject into the news flow of users for money. Musk had already written before the start of his takeover attack that he found subscription models for services like Twitter better and that the focus was wrong because it gave large corporations too much power. There is always tension between advertisers and online platforms, for example when extreme posts appear next to which they do not want their products to be placed.
TwitterBlue
Twitter is already experimenting with subscription business models in its Blue offering, which is available in the United States, among other places. Among other things, Twitter Blue customers can edit finished tweets for up to 30 seconds. Tweet series are also displayed in a more legible manner, and there is the option of organizing saved tweets in folders. The subscription costs $2.99 a month in the US. There was also evidence that Twitter could charge for its Tweetdeck software, which makes using the service more convenient and ad-free.
In the online business, free services such as Facebook and Google, which do their business with advertising based on user information, have clearly prevailed against subscription models. Years ago, the fee-based Twitter alternative App.net failed.
Away from the stock market – and back again?
Musk plans to delist Twitter after takeover. He argued that this was the only way for the service to realize its full potential as a platform for free speech. According to the Wall Street Journal, he advertised to potential investors that Twitter could return to the stock market in a few years. Musk mentioned a period of three years, the newspaper wrote on Tuesday, citing informed people.
Musk has presented $46.5 billion in funding for the deal. Of that, $25.5 billion are loans, some of which are to be secured with his Tesla shares. He wants to raise up to 21 billion dollars himself. According to media reports, Musk is trying to win over partners such as financial investors. They could cash in later if Twitter were to go public again.
One of the big questions surrounding Musk’s free speech pledge is whether ex-President Donald Trump could return to the platform. He was banned after expressing sympathy for his supporters who stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. In the preceding weeks, Trump had fueled sentiment with baseless claims that an election win against Joe Biden was stolen through fraud. Trump said he didn’t want to go back to Twitter, although he could. The presence on the platform, where he once had more than 80 million followers, could be important for a possible candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.