New attempt for paid Twitter subscription
After several failed attempts, Twitter is making a new attempt to introduce a paid subscription for users with "Twitter Blue".
This means that users will be asked to pay for the verification of their user account by the white check mark in a blue circle. The checkmark, which indicates that a user account has been verified by Twitter, was previously free of charge and was awarded to politicians, celebrities, journalists and organizations, for example. In the future, a paid subscription will be a prerequisite for the coveted verification checkmark on a user account.
Twitter Blue is said to be significantly more expensive for iPhone users: "We're relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday - subscribe on the web for $8/month or on (Apple's) iOS for $11/month, and get access to exclusive features including the blue checkmark," the company tweeted over the weekend.
Revenue beyond advertising
After buying Twitter in October, new owner and billionaire Elon Musk had said he wanted to expand the company's revenue streams beyond advertising and develop new paid services.
A version of the paid subscription Twitter Blue launched in November was quickly discontinued due to the appearance of many fake accounts whose users pretended to be celebrities or businesses.
With the new version, accounts seeking a checkmark will now continue to be verified by Twitter, the company announced. In addition, subscribers are to enjoy other benefits, such as significantly fewer advertisements, a function for editing tweets after they have been published, and the ability to download videos in better quality. (sda)
