On Monday The Verge reported that new Twitter owner Elon Musk wants to start charging people who have verified accounts — popularly referred to as “blue checks” — $20 dollars a month to keep their verified status.
The idea was widely, almost universally mocked, and many of the site’s most prominent verified users said they would leave if Twitter tried to implement the plan. Stephen King, the literary legend, was among those who tweeted. “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F– that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.”
Musk confirmed that the reports were accurate hours later when he signed on to basically beg King to not leave by bargaining with him about the price.
“We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”Musk tweeted at the horror icon.
“I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented. It is the only way to defeat the bots & trolls,”Musk did not stop there.
King has yet to respond as of this writing.
Musk’s comments are puzzling to put it mildly. A verified account means only that account holder has some kind of public relevance and that Twitter has confirmed they aren’t lying about their identity. It does not grant any privileges or special abilities, but it allows you to see analytics. You can read more about it by clicking here.
Musk has admitted that he would like users to pay $20.00 per Month to have the ability to post free content to Twitter and also to prove they are real people.
Twitter currently has only 400,000 verified users. The scheme would generate $96,000,000. If all of these people agreed to pay $20 per month to Twitter they would earn $96,000,000. If they agreed to pay Musk’s offered $8.00 a month, they would generate just $38,400,000.
For comparison: Twitter’s operational expenses in the second fiscal quarter of 2022These figures were $1.5 Billion