(Reuters) – Elon Musk, Twitter Inc’s greatest shareholder, on Saturday urged a raft of modifications to the social media big’s Twitter Blue premium subscription service, together with slashing its worth, 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 means to average content material.
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 is offered within the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In a Twitter submit, the pinnacle of electrical automobile maker Tesla Inc urged 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.
“Price ought to in all probability be ~$2/month, however paid 12 months up entrance & account would 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 urged. “The energy of firms to dictate coverage is drastically enhanced if Twitter is dependent upon 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 solutions.
The firm already lets individuals tip their favourite content material creators utilizing bitcoin. Twitter had stated final 12 months that it deliberate to assist authentication for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, that are digital property corresponding to pictures 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 exhibits up (to work there)”. The ballot obtained extra 300,000 votes in an hour, with 90% answering sure.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
