It may cost you to keep or buy that all-important blue verification tick on Twitter.
That is according to new Twitter owner Elon Musk. The entrepreneur said on Twitter late Tuesday night that he may charge Twitter users $8 to keep their all-so-precious blue tick.
Musk Tweeted last night, “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.”
He went on to add that the amount will vary from country to country, adding, “price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity”.
“Purchasing power parities are the rates of currency conversion that try to equalise the purchasing power of different currencies by eliminating the differences in price levels between countries”, according to data.oecd.org.
This therefore suggests that South Africans could pay around R57.34 for a blue tick, according to a purchasing power parity converter.
SO WHAT WILL YOU GET FOR YOUR ‘R60’
Musk stated that users will get:
- Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
- Ability to post long video & audio
- Half as many ads
In addition, Musk argued that this new payment “will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators”. He believes that supporting creators is essential. Tweeting, “absolutely essential. Creators need to make a living!”
HAVE YOUR SAY
Would you pay $8 (about R60) to have the blue verification tick on Twitter?
REACTIONS
As you can expect, Twitter users did not take long to air their feelings about the new payment proposal.
Here are a few reactions...
creator payments is HUGE to incentivize content creation. love this idea :)
— Gali (@Gfilche) November 1, 2022
They plan too it sounds like and it could work on metrics such but not limited to engagement, retweets, ctr, unique impressions, affiliates …etc…many ways that this could be monetized while improving the experience
— mike ahuja (@mikeahuja) November 2, 2022
Usually blue tick in social media apps use to refer as an authenticator that the person who has the blue tick is the real celebrity or a real person who earned the right to have a blue tick , but now scammers and conartist can use the blue tick
“I’m buying Twitter for free speech, not for the money.”
— Stephen Geiger (@Stephen_Geiger) November 1, 2022
Immediately charges you $8/month to be verified and your replies show up above the other peasants. Awful. @elonmusk
The only reward I need is a faster way to manually block spam bots from the 3rd world.
— Richard Heart (@RichardHeartWin) November 1, 2022
I didn’t ask for the blue check mark- it just showed up one day, so feel free to take it away. My peeps know it’s me.
Elon Musk has already established a great equalization of the flow of information and free speech challenging the gatekeepers since he purchased Twitter. I love it! That's why I just joined Twitter. Keep it flowing brother. Everyone's voice matters!
— Jeff Lynch (@jwlynchmob2) November 2, 2022
BUSINESS REPORT