X, formerly known as Twitter, is charging $US1 a month for New Zealand and Philippines users to post in an experiment that could go global, so what’s Elon thinking now?
X, formerly known as Twitter, is charging $US1 a month for New Zealand and Philippines users to post on its platform in a high stakes experiment designed to stop spam accounts and grow its ailing revenue.No other established social media site has told its users they can’t post without paying. Posts are the lifeblood of social media. As more sites have come to be dominated by influencers and professional vloggers, most people have stopped posting.
It is in line with Musk’s previous musings that the only way to fully stop spam is to change the economics. Spam content is cheap to make but requires huge volumes to entrap the occasional victim. Even a marginal charge would make X a less attractive destination. Engagement on the platform is already noticeably down, and even if committed posters choose to pay, they now won’t have the mass of people liking, replying and reposting their missives. That deadens the network.
In most business environments, the demise of a mismanaged incumbent can be good for upstarts. This might give one of X’s several much-hyped but in practice languishing rivals,But if the X subscription model succeeds against the odds it would be a sign that users are willing to pay for social media. Like the way in which journalism has shifted from ads to subscriptions, that could be a good thing.