Elon Musk announced that his company X, formerly Twitter will soon launch two new tiers of subscriptions that would be premium. He said on his post at X,that one would be lower in cost with all the features,they wouldn’t have a reduction in ads. Those who prioritise the ad free browsing and social media interaction experience there would be more expensive, subscription.Thus it gives a completely ad free environment.
However the details regarding the subscription were not provided by him yet.
Wider issues of for Elon Musk
Other tech platforms have also experimented with the mix of ad-supported Subscription plans.While Alphabet’s YouTube has both paid and free, ad-supported ones, Netflix’s ad-supported plans are also chargeable, though at a lower price.
Like X, YouTube is also populated by content from users. It shares a part of revenue created from subscription with creators.X, did not disclose icf the ad-free subscription revenue would be shared with content creators as it also shares some kind of revenue with content creators.
X, was taken over by Elon Musk in October last year. He has looked to incentivise users to pay for enhanced services. These services are a part of X Premium. For blue check subscription, some people now have to pay $8 per month. Since Musk’s takeover, there’s been introduced, with cutting off of content moderation to a very low,this includes mass layoffs. This has led to advertisers to stop their ads on the platform. The $8 per month charge is to woo the advertisements back to the platform with offers of discounts.
Mr Musk’s attempts to generate revenue on X, has been facing deterrence with criticism. Despite the efforts, the criticism on the company’s lax content moderation. The advertisers have not flooded back in, over concerns that their ad would appear beside and inappropriate content.
He has also tried to woo advertisers back to X with offers of discounts.
He has acknowledged that the platform has taken a hit on revenue. He also banned the activists for putting pressure on advertisers. Mr Musk’s rapid changes has included mass layoffs and disbanding of content moderation teams. Thus the concern lies in propers content creation without jeopardising the activities common X user.
Earlier this week the company had started a new subscription in New Zealand and the Philippines. The plan includes charging $1 annually to every new user. According to Musk, charging the bots is the only way to combat them. Those who do not choose the subscription will be restricted to few features of ‘read-only’ for posts, videos and following accounts. The subscription is called the ‘Not A Bot’ subscription method, and is aimed to reduce bots ,curb misinformation, manipulation of information and minimise bots.
It was last week that the European Commission launched an investigation into X , to enquire whether it complies with new tech rules on illegal and harmful content. They were required to comply with the new Digital Services Act. The European Commissioner for Internal Market said that based on credible sources, X is rampant with the spread of disinformation on its platform after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
