Elon Musk said businesses and governments may need to pay “small costs” for using Twitter a few weeks after it announced it was planning to buy a social media platform for $ 44 billion.
The tech billionaire, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, added in a post Tuesday night that the platform would continue to be free for “ordinary users.”
Twitter is already experimenting with a paid-for subscription service called Twitter Blue in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand that offers additional features.
It is not yet clear how much Musk would like to charge businesses and governments, or whether certain groups such as nonprofits and journalists will be exempted from any tariffs.
Twitter declined to comment.
Over the years, Twitter has failed to make as much money as other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Musk, who has 90.7 million Twitter followers, previously said he wanted to “make Twitter better than ever by improving branding with new features.”
Twitter is already trying out a paid subscription service called Twitter Blue in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand which offers additional features.
The premium offer, which costs $ 2.99 per month in the U.S., gives users access to features such as reversing tweets and bookmarking tweets. Musk said last month he wanted to reduce the price of Twitter Blue and make changes to the service that included introducing a ban on ads.
Elsewhere, Musk also said that all direct Twitter messages should be encrypted at the end so that no one can view or hack user messages.
At the annual Met Gala show on Monday, Musk said Twitter also needed to eliminate bots and trolleys and scams that exist on the platform.
“We do not want people to lose their money and that kind of thing,” he said.
IPO plans?
Twitter is currently on the Nasdaq stock exchange list in New York but Musk hopes to keep it a secret.
However, Musk told investors he could choose to return Twitter to the public stock market in less than three years, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Monday quoting people familiar with the matter.
Assuming the purchase agreement is closed and Musk takes over Twitter, the company will be controlled by the richest person in the world and the person who has been the biggest critic of the stage while using it in controversial legal ways, especially through sensitive posts about Tesla.
Although Musk has revealed that his main interest on Twitter is related to what he sees as the company’s crackdown on free speech, Musk’s critics are concerned that the millionaire’s control of the platform will lead to the silence of their voices and those of others. I do not agree, as he often blocks critics from his personal account.
At a TED2022 conference in Vancouver last month, Musk shared how he would like to see the stage change under his ownership.
“I think it is very important that there is an inclusive forum for free speech,” he said at the time, acknowledging that some measures would have to be taken to address violent calls and to ensure compliance with international law. working on it.
He also said he would prefer “expiration” rather than a permanent ban, which could pave the way for former President Donald Trump to re-join the stage under Musk’s control. Twitter blocked Trump from the stage following his tweets about the January 6 uprising in the U.S. The Capitol, which states that “the risk of further violence.”