According to Bloomberg, the business is exploring a trio of membership tiers to deal with its financial problems, fueling the rumor that X, formerly known as Twitter, may add more paid services. Although there are few details, it appears that these premium subscription alternatives will affect how many advertisements you see when using the platform.
Though the information has been coming out for the past week, a developer and leaker with the X handle @aaronp613 dug into the source code of the app’s most recent iOS update and found some information on these planned subscription tiers. According to the Bloomberg article, it appears that it will be divided into Basic, Standard, and Plus. Standard users will only see half of the advertising, which is similar to the existing benefit reserved for those who pay $8 per month for a blue check, while basic users will continue to see the full quantity of ads, labeled or not. Additionally, users won’t see any adverts at all, giving them unrestricted access to whatever hoax is going around the Internet at the time.
We have no idea what these tiers will set you back. According to reports, Meta is taking a similar action in Europe by considering charging customers up to $17 a month for an ad-free Instagram and Facebook experience.
Nobody is certain what other benefits these membership tiers would offer paying users outside the ads, which the corporation hasn’t verified. We’ll have to wait and see if this signals a move toward making subscriptions to the service a requirement. It’s difficult to imagine what a free account might encounter, given that the premium basic plan apparently displays the number of advertisements that are now available. Double the advertisements? three times as many ads? Elon Musk is going to your house to accuse you of being complicit in the company’s financial decline. It’s anyone’s guess, but the allegation that X was fully embracing pay-to-play stems from a casual remark Elon Musk made when speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a live-streamed interview.
So it doesn’t appear that this is part of any effort to have users pay for the service, but it does appear that Twitter/X is continuing to test various payment models in an effort to become the “everything app.” We’ll have to wait and see what additional benefits the team comes up with for the three suggested membership tiers since it’s difficult to conceive that a decrease in the frequency of commercials alone would persuade many people to send one of the world’s richest men a monthly salary.
Regarding the business’s finances, according to Bloomberg, CEO Linda Yaccarino recently informed bank lenders that advertisers have begun coming back to the platform, albeit with smaller budgets. However, according to a recent report from Reuters, X’s US ad revenue has been falling steadily since Musk acquired the company, with the most recent numbers showing a 60% year-over-year reduction as of August.
