Only a few days after taking over Twitter” for the future of civilization “, Elon Musk shares his first requests with the employees of the platform. The billionaire wants to charge users who have a verified account.
After firing several company executives and announcing the upcoming return of controversial Donald Trump and Kanye West to the social network, Elon Musk is now looking for ways to make Twitter more profitable.
Musk relies on paid subscriptions to replenish the coffers
Indeed, the new leader of the blue bird has expressed in the past his ambition to double the profits of the firm in just two years. He therefore asked his employees to modify Twitter Blue, the $4.99 per month subscription offer that gives access to new features. Elon Musk wants to make it a more expensive subscription that also includes user verification.
Twitter Blue should thus experience a significant increase to reach 19.99 dollars per month. In exchange for this sum, subscribers would automatically obtain verification, while those who refused to register would see their blue dot disappear after 90 days. Employees working on the project were told this Sunday that they would have to meet the Nov. 7 deadline to launch the feature or they would be fired.
For his part, Musk announced on the platform that “ the whole verification process is being revamped and called on engineers from Tesla to support him in his task. Thus, his ally Jason Calacanis asked Twitter users, through a survey, how much they would be willing to pay to be verified on the platform. Eventually, Elon Musk wants subscriptions to account for half of Twitter’s overall revenue.
Many layoffs expected
In order to bail out the coffers, the businessman did not hide his desire to part with a good part of the company’s employees. For example, it plans to massively lay off middle managers and engineers who have not recently contributed to the code of the social network.
These dismissals should also begin this week, and officials are already drawing up lists of people to be fired. The billionaire’s takeover therefore promises to be particularly difficult for Twitter employees, who were forced to work late last Thursday night, the day Elon Musk acquired the company, and throughout the weekend.
Source : The Verge
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