The social media universe is constantly evolving, and one of the latest news that has shaken the digital community comes from none other than Elon Musk himself, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter). In a live conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk dropped the bomb: X could no longer be a free service.
The reason Musk gives for this change is the proliferation of bots on the platform. According to him, The only effective way to combat these “huge robot armies” is to implement a small monthly payment for the use of X. Bots, which can currently operate at virtually no cost, would become economically unviable if they had to pay even a fraction of a cent for each one. Additionally, every time a bot creator wanted to establish another one, it would require a new payment method, making it difficult for them to proliferate.
Musk has not specified how much this monthly subscription would cost, but has described it as a “small amount of money.”. Not only would this measure keep bots at bay, but it could also help improve the overall quality of content on X.
During the conversation, Elon Musk shared some impressive numbers about X. Currently, the platform has 550 million monthly users, who generate between 100 and 200 million publications a day. However, an important question arises: Are automated accounts, i.e. bots, included in these figures? Musk did not clarify this point, making the numbers difficult to compare with pre-Musk Twitter.
The social network previously used a specific metric called “average monetizable daily active user” or mDAU to measure its user base. According to this metric, Twitter had 229 million mDAU in the first quarter of 2022, before Musk arrived.
Although Musk has not provided a specific date for the implementation of this possible monthly fee, since taking over the platform, X has been promoting its paid subscription product, X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue). This service, which costs $8 a month or $84 a year, offers a variety of features, such as post editing, fewer ads, priority in searches and conversations, and the ability to write longer posts.
However, Independent statistics suggest that X Premium has not attracted the majority of X users, with only 827,615 paid subscribers currently. The idea of charging all users for access to X is not new to Musk; It had already been rumored before.
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Source: La Opinion
