Elon Musk’s controversial plan to charge green accounts with an amount of 8 USD / month (199,000 VND / month) to maintain it may be applied from the beginning of next week. Initially, Twitter’s new CEO is said to have come up with the idea of the 20 USD / month fee (497,000 VND / month) that requires a Twitter Blue subscription to keep the account status verified and a some other features like bookmarks and Reader Mode.
According to the American billionaire, forcing users to sign up for Twitter Blue will help increase revenue and reduce Twitter’s reliance on advertising. However, it also marks the first time that verified accounts have been asked to pay to keep the familiar blue check mark.
Until now, the system of ticks on Twitter accounts has always served as a system to verify the reliability of sources such as journalists, government officials, health authorities, activists or government organization. However, Elon Musk thinks that applying this fee will become an effective tool to eliminate annoying bot and troll accounts. Notably, Tesla’s father has accelerated product development at Twitter at such a frenzied rate that some employees are said to have to sleep in the office to meet deadlines.
In addition, some internal sources revealed that Twitter may start charging verified accounts next Monday (November 7). According to the report, accounts will be renewed for a period of time (possibly 90 days) before being charged a monthly fee of 8 USD (199,000 VND). Twitter is also said to consider rolling out an annual service plan for $99 (VND 2.4 million). However, when paying the annual fee is even more expensive than paying monthly, this figure of 99 USD/year (2.4 million VND/year) seems unreliable.
Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner also shared a screenshot showing the difference between verified and unpaid accounts for the Twitter Blue subscription. The only noticeable change is the “Official Account” label just below the username on the profile page. Verified accounts that don’t pay fees will lose a “green check”.
Unpaid verified account Twitter Blue
Twitter account paid Twitter Blue
Elon Musk said that the price of Twitter Blue subscriptions will be adjusted on a regional basis, with adjustments based on the purchasing power of users in each market. It is clear that after assessing the importance and influence of verified accounts, Elon Musk is now selling the “green tick” symbol, which was previously always provided for free. Interestingly, the official Twitter Verification support page still states that “Twitter doesn’t sell blue Verification badges”, although that may just be because employees aren’t having time to update it.
According to Slash Gear
Source: Vietnam Insider