Twitter updated its app on Apple’s App Store on Saturday to charge $8 for coveted blue badges in Elon Musk’s first major overhaul of the social media platform.
The change comes a week after Musk acquired the social media company in a $44 billion deal.
The billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) has cut Twitter staff by half and vowed to start charging users more.
In an update for Apple iOS devices, Twitter said those who “sign up now” can get the blue tick next to their username for $7.99 a month, “just like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians you meet.” already follow”.
Before Musk took over, blue ticks next to someone’s username meant Twitter confirmed that the account belonged to the person or company claiming it.
It wasn’t immediately clear how or if Twitter intended to verify the user’s identity beyond charging a fee.
According to the iOS notification, other benefits of the update include “half the ads,” the ability to post longer videos to Twitter, and a priority ranking for high-quality content.
Twitter and Musk did not immediately respond to Portal request for comment through Tesla.
The implementation of the update
Twitter’s new boss hinted at the updates earlier this week to monetize the social media network and make it less dependent on advertising. Twitter is currently free for most users.
Twitter’s update states that the new verified service will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“Once we confirm it’s working well in the first few countries and we’ve done the translation work, it will be rolled out globally,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Twitter Blue will be launching in India in “hopefully less than a month,” Musk tweeted in response to a follower’s question.
In a separate tweet, Musk also added that “fixing search is a top priority” on Twitter.
“We can beat that,” he replied in another tweet, when a user pointed out that YouTube gives creators 55 percent of ad revenue.
“Twitter will soon add the ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending the absurdity of Notepad screenshots. Followed by creator monetization for all types of content,” Musk added in a tweet.
As of Saturday, the update remained at the old price of $4.99 on Twitter Blue.
Shortly after the update became available to users, Esther Crawford, product manager at Twitter, said the new service was not yet live.
“The new Blue isn’t live yet – the sprint to our launch is ongoing, but some people may see us update as we test and push changes in real-time,” she said in a tweet.
Earlier this week, Crawford went viral after retweeting a photo of herself sleeping on the office floor at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters following Musk’s takeover.
“When your team is pushing 24/7 to meet deadlines, sometimes you #sleep where you work”.