According to the official account of X, better known as Twitter, the company will demand an annual payment from each user to continue using their account. Specifically, it is indicated that Elon Musk will launch a basic subscription where he will start charging users 1 dollar, or 1 euro, per year, to continue having access to basic features of the application.
Elon Musk thus seeks to give an injection of profitability to its platform. Of course, the owner of the company indicates that this would also help to get rid of the bots that inhabit its platform. He indicates that starting to charge all users will help reduce the number of bots. Elon indicated that this new subscription method has debuted in New Zealand and the Philippines as a proof of concept for new users.
Specifically, it is indicated that new users will have to pay $1 per year to be able to use X on a daily basis. This implies that it will be necessary to pay to post, reply to other users, quote, retweet, create lists and make use of any feature of the social network. This marks X as the first social network in history that will force users to pay to use it. Despite paying, you will still be exposed to advertising on the platform.
It should be recalled that earlier this month it was leaked that X would implement three types of paid subscriptions. These are known as Premium Basic, Premium Standard and Premium Plus. The Basic subscription could be this one for $1 per year. The Standard could be the one known as Blue for 8 dollars a month, and there could even be a Plus that would include as an additional advantage the elimination of any trace of advertising, which would make the price even more expensive.
As of today, we are testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines. New, unverified accounts will be required to subscribe to a $1 annual subscription to be able to post and interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users will not be affected,” a message on Twitter stated.
“This new test has been developed to reinforce our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing the accessibility of the platform with the small fee. It is not for profit. And so far, subscription options have proven to be the main solution that works at scale.
Given this information, charging a mere dollar or euro per user is quite tempting. Now, not all users will pay for basic access to their account. On the upside, an undetermined number of bots will not be able to interact with the rest of us mortals. This would already be a success for Elon Musk, although of course, coming from a generation that did not even want to pay pennies for WhatsApp, it remains to be seen how this charge of 1 dollar or euro per year would affect the platform.
Thus, new users in New Zealand and the Philippines will be required to verify their account with a phone number. After that, they will have to pay 1 dollar to use the social network for a year. In New Zealand the price is 1.43 NZD (0.84 dollars), while in the Philippines it will cost 42.51 PHP (0.75 dollars). Now it remains to be seen if this subscription will reach the rest of the countries, and if it will affect already registered users. It should be remembered that two additional subscription methods to the well-known Twitter Blue are expected.
