X to soon charge users ‘a small monthly payment’: Musk

Elon Musk floated the idea that X may no longer be a free site, in a bid to deal with the problem of bots on the platform

PGurus Newsdesk

September 19, 2023

Elon Musk floated the idea that X may no longer be a free site, in a bid to deal with the problem of bots on the platform

It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots, says Elon Musk

In a bid to deal with the problem of bots on the platform, Elon Musk is going to charge a “small monthly payment’ from all X users and the social media platform would not be a free place anymore soon.

In a live-streamed interaction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the X owner floated the idea that the social network may no longer be a free site.

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” Musk said late on Monday.

“Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but even if it has to pay a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” the billionaire added.

The idea of charging everyone on X is not a new idea as last year, Musk floated it for the first time.

The company currently charges $8 per month from its X Premium users, which gives them the ability to edit posts, see fewer ads, write longer posts, and prioritize rankings in searches and conversations.

During the interaction, Musk said that X now now 550 million monthly users, generating 100-200 million posts every day.

Musk did not disclose how many paid subscribers it currently has.

During its last public earnings in Q1 2022, Twitter mentioned 229 million mDAUs (monetizable daily active users).

[With Inputs from IANS]

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