Twitter launched Twitter Blue last year with the view of growing revenue.
Microblogging platform Twitter announced a new annual plan for its Twitter Blue subscription service for the web. The company also announced plans for iOS and Android in select countries.
Users in the United States can purchase a yearly subscription service for $84, available only for the web. While a subscription for Android and iOS for a month will cost $11 in the States, the Elon Musk-owned company is offering a cheaper annual plan for web users at $8 a month.
Apart from the U.S., the new subscriptions to Twitter Blue are currently available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The company said its plans to expand the service without giving any more details.
Previously, high-profile celebrities, politicians, journalists, and other renowned public figures used to get their accounts verified for free. However, the company launched Twitter Blue last year with the view of growing revenue and the move came at a time when the company fights to retain advertisers.
“Now the blue checkmark may mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (active and authentic), or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue,” the company said in a blog.
It is no surprise that the social media company is reeling financially after Musk bought the platform for $44 billion last year. The microblogging site has since laid off several of its employees as a part of its cost-cutting measure.
According to a report by The Information, more than 500 of the company’s top advertisers have paused spending on Twitter since Musk’s takeover. Reportedly, the company’s daily ad revenue on Jan. 17 was 40% lower than the same day a year ago.
One major reason why advertisers left the platform was its hampered image after hasty Musk’s mass layoffs, decisions like retaining accounts of controversial celebrities along with a surge in fake accounts, and misinformation on the microblogging site following the launch of the paid verification feature.
