Overview

• Elon Musk has announced new premium subscription tiers for X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. One is a lower-cost option with all features but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive but comes ad-free.
• X recently began trialing a $1 annual fee for 'read-only' users in New Zealand and the Philippines. The fee is aimed at reducing spam and bot activity on the platform.
• Since Musk's takeover of Twitter in October 2022, advertisers have reportedly withdrawn from the platform due to rapid changes such as mass layoffs and disbanding content moderation teams. This has led Musk to attempt monetization strategies such as charging for the service and offering discounts to advertisers.
• Musk's attempts to incentivize users to pay for enhanced services through subscription schemes, like X Premium, have met with limited success so far. It's estimated only about 900,000 of X's 245 million daily active users are subscribed.
• Musk's strategies to increase revenue on X have been met with criticism. Some argue that his ad-based tiers risk turning free speech into a pay-to-play game, making the countering of disinformation increasingly challenging.