X will begin charging new users $1 a year::X owner Elon Musk has long floated the idea of charging users $1 for the platform. Now, the team is moving the idea into production.

  • Aidinthel@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Oh, yes, please do. Just put that bullet in the skull of Twitter’s zombified corpse and end its suffering forever.

  • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think Twitter is just the start. Big tech had always placed user growth as the highest priority to accelerate growth. They assumed that once they monopolize the market, they will be free to do with said market whatever they want due to alternatives being nonexistent but are quickly learning that is not the case. Ads and sale of user data can only earn you so much.

    Meta will follow suit within a year, I’ll set a reminder right now to see if my prediction was right.

    • wwwwhatever@lemmy.omat.nl
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, and one day the Tesla owners wake up and will be faced with $1 per trip in their car too. Reminder me in 2 years please.

    • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I welcome it. These companies have overstayed their welcome. Let them die so that something better can take their place. I haven’t logged into Facebook in a year and it’s wonderful.

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My theory is he’s literally trying to kill Twitter. He blustered about buying Twitter as a brag with no actual intention to go through with it. And then they took him seriously and forced him to make good on it. Now he’s pissed he was compelled to take ownership of it and still doesn’t actually want anything to do with it. So he’s putting it out of his misery as quickly as possible. Meanwhile his hubris is blinding him to the ensuing shitstorm of shareholder litigation he’s about to face.

    • takeda@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My theory is that announcing that this will apply for new accounts and that they are now testing it in New Zealand and Philippines he hopes that people that don’t have Twitter account now will create one.

      • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        He borrowed it from the Saudis who would dearly love to kill the main organising tool behind the Arab Spring. A few B lost is cheap to them

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is the best theory I’ve heard yet. I could get behind it. I’m certain he’s purposely trying to kill it, I just can’t fathom why he would if it’s going to cost him and other billions. But this holds together.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This always sounds nice, except that he could just fire everyone, turn off the servers and close the offices. That would kill Twitter instantaneously. No need to bleed money. Musk genuinely believes what he says and thinks that what he does is the correct thing to do, completely unironically and without any shred of self-awareness. He is just not a very clever man. He did similar hi-jinks when he was the CEO of PayPal, except there were other powerful people there smart enough to fire him so he didn’t destroy the company. Same with Tesla and SpaceX, there are other adults in the room that can put him on his place or distract him with shiny toys so he doesn’t break anything important. But with Twitter, there is no safety net, this is pure unadulterated, unfiltered, unhinged Muskrat brain juice.

  • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Why would you make it recurring, if it’s to fight bots? A sign up fee of 5 bucks would make more sense.

    But it’s not about bots. It’s about extracting whatever cash he can.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Elon whining about bots is the same as trump whining about fake news.

      He’s just trying to use it as a carte blanche to do what he likes without having to explain himself

    • Drusenija@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because if you make it recurring you have justification to keep a card on file. Which means a good percentage of people will set it up and then forget about it. And if it remains yearly it’ll happen infrequently enough that people probably won’t bother cancelling it. Even if the price goes up.

  • spudwart@spudwart.com
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    1 year ago

    Reminder that Competing Social Network Mastodon still charges new users $0 a year, as legally required in it’s AGPLv3 License.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet, reply, quote, repost, like, bookmark, and create list, according to a source familiar with the matter

    X owner Elon Musk has long floated the idea of charging users $1 for the platform.

    During a recent livestreamed conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”

    The company also published “Not-a-Bot Terms and Conditions” today outlining its plan for a paid subscription service that gives users certain abilities on their platform, like posting content and interacting with other users.

    This story is developing.

    Please check back later for updates.


    The original article contains 126 words, the summary contains 126 words. Saved 0%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!