SpaceX CEO and owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, says the social media platform 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 posted on X. He, however, did not provide more details on the subscription plans.
X has rolled out “Not A Bot”, a test case subscription on 17th October, aiming to “bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity reduce spam, manipulation of the platform and bot activity.”
The test subscription stands for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines. The test requires that new users verify their accounts, and also pay $1 annual fee for accessing the platform.
The company posted on its website that 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.
Musk acquired X in October 2022, and his rapid changes, including mass layoffs and disbanding content moderation teams, have led to advertisers pulling their ads from the service.
This has led to a dive in revenue, a problem Musk has acknowledged, and also blamed on activists for pressuring advertisers.
To generate revenue, Musk started charging $8 per month for the blue check subscription service and tried to woo advertisers back to X since the past year.
