New data has shown that Twitter is failing to monetise its Twitter user base by introducing a Twitter Blue subscription tier.
The Twitter Blue service costs $13 a month, or $135 annually – a service that simply allows users access to the verification tick, the ability to vote in polls, and other pointless features.
Web analytics company Similarweb found that, of the 2.6 million March visits to the Twitter Blue pricing page, only 4.5 per cent of visitors ended up subscribing to the service.
David Carr, senior insights manager at Similarweb, doubts whether the service will be a revenue winner for Musk.
“Although Twitter is no longer a public company, its monthly revenue from advertising is still estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Carr said.
“Even if every one of the approximately 116,000 signups we estimate Twitter secured in March was for an $US84 one-year commitment, that would translate into about $US9.8 million.
“Twitter would have to continue to expand that pool of subscribers and win their continued renewals to make a significant transition away from the ad-supported business model Musk inherited.”
Musk’s threat of removing ticks from April 1 has also failed to occur.
“The mass disappearance of blue checks that was expected to happen over the weekend failed to materialise, with the notable exception of Musk ordering the checkmark for the New York Times removed,” Carr said.
“Instead, other odd changes like the replacement of the Twitter bird logo with the Dogecoin “doge” left some observers wondering if Musk was trying to degrade the Twitter experience for everyone but paying customers.”
