Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the brand new Tesla Gigafactory for electrical automobiles in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Patrick Pleul/Pool by way of REUTERS/File Picture
April 9 (Reuters) – Elon Musk, Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) greatest shareholder, on Saturday prompt a raft of modifications to the social media big’s Twitter Blue premium subscription service, together with slashing its value, banning promoting and giving an choice to pay within the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
Musk, who disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter simply days in the past, was supplied a seat on its board of administrators, a transfer which made some Twitter workers panic over the way forward for its capability to reasonable content material. learn extra
Twitter Blue, launched in June 2021, is Twitter’s first subscription service and provides “unique entry to premium options” on a month-to-month subscription foundation, Twitter says. It’s out there in america, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In a Twitter put up, the top of electrical car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) prompt that customers who join Twitter Blue ought to pay considerably lower than the present $2.99 a month, and will get an authentication checkmark in addition to an choice to pay in native forex.
“Value ought to in all probability be ~$2/month, however paid 12 months up entrance & account does not get checkmark for 60 days (look ahead to bank card chargebacks) & suspended with no refund if used for rip-off/spam,” Musk stated in a tweet.
“And no adverts,” Musk prompt. “The ability of companies to dictate coverage is enormously enhanced if Twitter will depend on promoting cash to outlive.”
Musk additionally proposed an choice to pay with dogecoin and requested Twitter customers for his or her views.
Twitter declined to touch upon Musk’s recommendations.
The corporate already lets individuals tip their favourite content material creators utilizing bitcoin. Twitter had stated final 12 months that it deliberate to help authentication for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, that are digital property akin to photographs or movies that exist on a blockchain.
Musk additionally began a ballot on his Twitter account – which has greater than 81 million followers – asking whether or not the agency’s San Francisco headquarters ought to be transformed to a homeless shelter as “no-one reveals up (to work there)”. The ballot received extra 300,000 votes in an hour, with 90% answering sure.
Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Further reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat; Enhancing by Kenneth Maxwell
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