Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Launches Twitter Blue... FaceBook Probably Watching Very Closely

Elon Musk in a spaceship sending out a Tweet.
Image by David Arandle + Mage.AI

Most people who follow the news cycle are probably aware that tech billionaire, Elon Musk, bought the social media giant Twitter. While his overall goal is to make the platform a better experience with fewer bots, he's also invested in turning it into a network that actually makes rather than loses money.

After firing a large part of Twitter's workforce, which former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has taken responsibility for by saying he grew the company too fast too soon, Elon launched Twitter Blue.

The initial rumored price for Twitter Blue was US$20.00 per month but this has since been revised and set at US$7.99/per month. Though on my own account in Australia the cost is AU$6.99 per month, which at the current conversion rate means I'm getting a considerable discount.

The point of Twitter Blue, aside from offering a number of features not available to those on 'free' accounts, like longer tweets, higher resolution video posting, editable posts, and more, is to not so much verify that you are who you say you are but to verify that you're a human and not a bot.

At least that's the impression I get because you only need credit card information in order to make payment... and I presume that doesn't have to be your personal credit card for ID purposes to gain that blue 'verified' checkmark.

Anyway, while I'm not likely to be purchasing a monthly subscription to Twitter any time soon (I just don't use Twitter as my 'go to' social media platform despite having an account since they started), I do think Facebook and other free social media platforms will be looking on at paid subscriptions with interest.

I feel that, potentially, could be the next big trend in social media. Paid subscriptions. It's not a new idea by any means but if it works for one of the biggest social networks on the planet, you can bet others won't be far behind.

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