Tech mogul Elon Musk may soon charge a nominal from its users in a bid to curb the mushrooming of bots on the social media network, he indicated during a conversation with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Musk may also be eyeing the move to shore up X’s revenues.
Elon Musk may charge users for basic access to X, apart from the premium X Blue service. (Photo credit: AP)
Elon Musk may be planning to charge a nominal fee from the users of X, formerly known as Twitter, in a move to curb the mushrooming of bots on the social media platform, he indicated while in conversation with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The platform is moving towards a “small monthly payment for the use of the X system,” Musk said conversation with Netanyahu.
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Why does Musk want to charge users for X
The Tesla boss said this was the only way to tackle bots on the platform since it would make it more expensive to operate bots on X if a fee is charged for each account, Bloomberg reported.
Currently, X has 550 million users responsible for over 100-200 million daily posts.
To be sure, this is not a new proposal from Musk, who was reported to have considered putting X entirely behind a paywall, according to the Platformer.
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Revenue concerns
Musk was reportedly concerned about X’s declining revenue when he acquired the social media platform last year.
The company remains nearly 50 per cent down in revenue terms, he noted in July this year.
Musk hired former NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino as CEO of X to bolster the social media giant’s revenues.
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X Blue
Last year, X under Musk rolled out the X Blue subscription-based service which allows users to have a blue tick for $8 per month.
Here are some of the benefits offered by X Blue:
- One-hour editing window after post is made
- Up to 50 per cent less ads
- Priority to post rankings
- Up to 25,000 character limit
- Up to 3 hour or 8GB video uploads
- Revenue share through ad posting on posts
