‘Expect the unexpected’! Would Elon Musk’s Twitter Earn $8 if all blue ticks paid $8?

After announcing that he will charge verified Twitter users $8 a month, Elon Musk is presently under fire. The microblogging service was acquired by the software mogul for $44 billion in late October, and he has since been hard at work transforming it into a ‘digital town square’. Charging money from verified users is what has many outraged amid a lot of changes, including the 25% layoff of Twitter staff. From $20, which was the initial price Musk intended to charge, the aforementioned sum was reduced.

How much money would Twitter now generate ?
Twitter will have 4,24,000 verified users as of 2022, according to a Statista research. Twitter would earn around $3.4 million each month, or about Rs 28.2 crore, if each of these users agreed to pay the $8 required to maintain their blue tick (per current Rupee strength). It is important to note, however, that this figure may increase significantly given that anybody can now obtain the blue tick badge if they are willing to pay the required sum. However, this number may potentially decrease as many users are prepared to remove their verified accounts, while others have vowed to stop using Twitter completely.

It’s also important to note that, according to Statista, there are now just 0.2% of 240 million daily active users who have verified accounts (24 crores). Musk would earn a staggering $1.92 billion per month if everyone of these accounts acquired the blue tick at $8. Prior to proposing membership fees on November 1, Musk criticised the ‘lords & peasants system for who has or does not have a blue checkmark’.  He stated that verified users will receive ‘Priority in responses, mentions & search, which is vital to beat spam/scam, Ability to post extended video & audio, Half as many adverts (sic)’.

In order to combat impersonators, the concept of Twitter verification was initially presented in 2009 and made available to public figures, organisations, artists, sports, and other well-known figures. Musk referred to the verification procedure as ‘bull****’ because of the apparent lack of openness surrounding it.