- As debt interest payments near, Elon Musk has been haphazardly suggesting methods to “pay the bills” on Twitter.
- His approach is quite different from the one he used to say he “didn’t care about how economics” of buying it back in April.
- Musk is reported to have suggested that advisors receive paid direct messages and “paywalled” videos in order to increase their Twitter earnings.
Elon Musk had offered to purchase Twitter for $44 Billion in April. He later stated that he didn’t care about the economics of the purchase.
Musk: “This is simply my strong, intuitive feeling that having a public forum that is maximally trustworthy and broadly inclusive is extremely crucial to the future civilization.” at the TED2022 conference.
Seven months later the world’s wealthiest man seems to have changed his tune. He is now randomly suggesting ideas to his advisors. And even his Twitter followersIn an effort to make the platform financially viable.
Musk made the announcement earlier this week that Twitter would start. charging $8 per month for its “blue check” verification program, which was previously free to those who qualified.
Musk said, “We must pay the bills somehow!” Musk wrote this in a Tweet responding to complaints about the fee.
Musk also has other ideas to get cash out of his company. The New York Times ReportsMusk and his advisors considered adding a service to allow users to send messages directly to high-profile users, for a fee and “paywalled” videos.
According to Musk’s interactions with Twitter followers, Musk also thought about charging for user analytics, and reviving Vine, a short-form video platform that allows users to record videos.
Musk’s rushed efforts to generate new revenue streams via Twitter are in direct contradiction with Musk’s speech last spring about the purchase of the social networking platform. He extolled its virtues as a “de facto square”. The Twitter deal was comparedJeff Bezos bought The Washington Post.
Musk now has Twitter employees Working 24 hours a dayIt is still trying to figure out how to make the most of Twitter’s platform. Twitter will eventually have to pay large interest payments. Musk borrowed $13 Billion from banks in order to partially fund the deal. As a result, the company will be required to pay $1 Billion annually in interest. According to the Times, Twitter’s cash flow for last year was less than $1 billion.
Musk isn’t the only person trying to save money by charging for services that were previously free. Large swathes of Twitter staff were present on Thursday night and Friday morning. They were laid offYou can do this either by email, or simply by losing access to your Slack and email accounts.
