Formerly known as Twitter, X is expanding its paid subscription offerings one year after its acquisition by Elon Musk for a staggering $44 billion, amidst financial challenges.
The revamped platform now provides users with a choice of three subscription plans: Basic, Premium (previously referred to as “Blue”), and Premium+, priced at $3, $8, and $16 per month, respectively.
The Premium+ subscription not only includes all the benefits of the Premium plan but also offers enhanced message visibility, increasing the likelihood of engagement while eliminating ads for subscribers.
For users opting for the Basic plan, it comprises fundamental editing tools, enabling actions such as message correction and the posting of longer videos. Additionally, it includes two-factor authentication but does not grant access to creator tools for monetization or account verification via the coveted blue checkmark.
The introduction of the Blue subscription, which followed Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company, aimed to diversify revenue streams and democratize the account certification process. This transformed the once-free blue checkmark into a paid feature accessible to all users, marking a shift in the platform’s dynamics.
This approach, coupled with a noticeable reduction in content moderation efforts, resulted in a more chaotic environment, marked by numerous allegedly certified fake accounts spreading misinformation and rumors.
The challenges faced by X have led to an exodus of advertisers, causing the platform’s value to plummet to $20 billion, with a significant drop in advertising revenue, as acknowledged by Elon Musk. Moreover, X is gradually moving towards a universal application model, similar to China’s WeChat, aiming to offer not only messaging services but also online payment capabilities. Notably, the platform is testing features that allow users to make audio and video calls directly from the X application.
Elon Musk marked this development with a symbolic message on his profile, echoing a post from a year ago following his acquisition: “The bird is free,” alluding to Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo, now seemingly fading into history.