Elon Musk said on Friday that X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon launch two new tiers of premium subscriptions.
“One is lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive, but has no ads,” Musk said on a post on X. Musk did not provide more detail on the subscription plans.
Earlier this week, the company started charging new users US$1 (R19) in New Zealand and the Philippines as a test case for accessing the platform.
New users who opted out of subscribing will only be able to take “read-only” actions, such as: read posts, watch videos and follow accounts, the company said in its website.
Its “Not A Bot” subscription method aims to reduce spam, manipulation of the platform and bot activity.
Since taking over the platform in October 2022, Musk’s rapid changes, including mass layoffs and disbanding content moderation teams, has led to advertisers halting ads on the service.
Musk has acknowledged that the platform has taken a hit on revenue and has blamed activists for pressuring advertisers.
Read: SpaceX loan may have helped Musk buy Twitter
To generate revenue, Musk started charging $8/month for the blue check subscription service and tried to woo advertisers back to X with offers of discounts. — Gursimran Kaur and Supantha Mukherjee, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP