Musk wants $1 to let you engage on X
Musk wants $1 to let you engage on X
This morning I woke up to the news that Elon Musk has started charging $1 from people in the Philippines and New Zealand to let them engage on Twitter.
I.e. if they don’t pay $1 to X, they can’t post on Twitter, nor can they like tweets or post replies. All they can do is read.
Right now this is only applicable to the new accounts that sign up. All the existing accounts don’t need to pay this fee. They can continue working as normal.
Wow! This is a big move and I think only someone like Musk (or Jobs) could have ever done this.
Charge people to use social media?
Some weeks ago, when there were suggestions that this could happen, I said it wouldn't. Well, I am wrong. It did happen.
Twitter’s earlier monetization play, the Twitter Premium, does have over 640 thousand subscribers right now. That’s $5 million in monthly revenue. It’s a loose change compared to what’s being spent on Twitter.
But Twitter has over 528 million accounts. If Elon Musk can somehow convince a big chunk of them to pay $1 a month, it can be a lot of revenue, but at the danger of being proven wrong again, I am going to say – It won’t happen.
People don’t like to pay for using social media.
I did ask a few people around me and everyone said they wouldn’t pay to use X.
Here’s why X did this
According to Elon Musk, he’s doing it to get the bots under control. Even with a charge of $1 the Bot Army will find it hard to afford it and it’ll promote real engagement on Twitter.
Maybe, but this could mean losing the majority of real users too. Not sure if it’s a good bargain.
Will other social media platforms follow?
I bet everyone is watching like a hawk right now. X did successfully start the trend of paid verified accounts. Now every social media either has this, or is strongly considering it.
If this play is successful in unlocking significant revenues without driving Twitter into the dump, have no doubt that others will follow. I think LinkedIn is the network that’s most likely to succeed.
Social media needs to find a new revenue source apart from Ads
Ads are great, but with third-party cookies going soon and all sorts of regulatory or technical resistance to ads; it’s harder for social media to make money. Ad revenues are being challenged more now than ever before.
If platforms like X, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook were able to unlock revenue based on usage, they’d be more valuable and make a lot more money.
I still don’t believe that it can happen. Not unless every social network bands together and decides to charge the user. Surely, some people will pay then.
But most likely, it will spark off a new social network’s dominance.
How about you? Will you pay to use X or Facebook? Reply and let me know.
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