How much can Twitter earn from its blue tick service?

Twitter's new boss Elon Musk on Tuesday said that a blue verified badge would soon be chargeable and would cost $8 a month.

A blue verified Twitter badge lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. "Twitter's current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is b******t," Musk tweeted. "Power to the people! Blue for $8/month." He said that the price would be adjusted for each country "proportionate to purchasing power parity".

Musk said that users who paid for a verified check subscription to the service would get priority in replies, mentions and searches, and be able to post longer videos and audio clips while dealing with half as many ads. The latest move is in line with Musk's vision to make the social media giant less reliant on ads.

So, how much will Twitter make from this idea?

As of 2021, there were roughly 4 lakh verified accounts on Twitter with over 40 crore active users. If we assume that all verified Twitter users will sign up for a paid service, it will fetch the social media platform an additional revenue of $3.2 million a month. However, more than 80 per cent of Twitter users who took part in a recent poll said that they would not pay for a blue tick.

At this point, it is difficult to assess how much of a revenue generator this latest move from Twitter will be. The company lost $270 million in the April-June period after revenue slipped 1 per cent to $1.18 billion, reflecting advertising industry headwinds.

Also Read: Elon Musk’s Twitter faces exodus of advertisers and executives

Twitter also faces other challenges as it is struggling to keep its most active users - who are vital to the business - engaged. According to internal Twitter research seen by Reuters, "heavy tweeters" have been in "absolute decline" since the pandemic began. These "heavy tweeters" account for less than 10 per cent of monthly overall users but generate 90 per cent of all tweets and half of all global revenue.

(With inputs from agencies)