Elon Musk announced that Twitter now known as X will be charging its users to a “small monthly subscription” of the app X.This announcement was made during a livestream video with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, He insisted that Putting a paywall around the business would keep away the annoying bots or automated accounts that have been bothering Musk.
“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” Musk said. “Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny; call it a tenth of a penny but even if it has to pay a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” he said. Plus, every time a bot creator wanted to make another bot, they would need another new payment method. He didn’t really specify on the actual amount that was going to be paid by users he only it was a “small amount of money” that was going to be paid.
In the conversation, Musk shared some new numbers about X. He said there are now 550 million people using the site every month, and they make 100 to 200 million posts every day. However, it’s not clear if Musk is including automated accounts, which can be either good ones like news feeds or bad ones like spammers, in these numbers.
This new figure doesn’t let us directly compare X to Twitter before Musk took over. Twitter used a special metric called “average monetizable daily active user” to count users who could see their ads. In the first quarter of 2022, Twitter had 229 million average monetizable daily active user.
Musk didn’t give more details about how or when he plans to charge for X. But since he started running the platform last year, the company has been encouraging users to subscribe to X Premium (formerly called Twitter Blue). This service costs $8 per month or $84 per year and gives users extra features like editing their posts, seeing fewer ads, better search results and rankings, writing longer posts, and more.
For more updates on X or Twitter visit webmanager.ng and any other ICT related news
Previously Musk threatened to sue ADL (Anti Defamation League) where he complained about a 60% loss in Ad Revenue. During the conversation with Netanyahu it focused on AI technology and its regulation, though the topic of hate speech on X came up, Musk in reply said that he’s “against antisemitism” and “anything that promotes hate and conflict.”
Netanyahu said he wished that Elon Musk could figure out how to reduce antisemitism and other types of hate speech while following the rules of the First Amendment. This was the statement that was made by Netanyahu “I encourage you and urge you to find the balance,” Netanyahu said. “It’s a tough one.”
Elon Musk’s announcement of subscription that will paid on X marks a significant moment in the evolution of social media. While the details are still unfolding, it is clear that Twitter X aims to redefine the Twitter experience, offering users a more personalized and feature-rich environment. As we wait patiently for further information on this new update, it remains to be seen how this ambitious venture will shape the future of online communication and social media platforms.
