If Elon Musk expected many verified Twitter users to pay to keep the checkmark, reality must be disappointing. New data have emerged.
On April 1st, Twitter will be removing legacy verification checkmarks from its platform in favor of paid checkmarks associated with Twitter Blue subscriptions. After that, after April 15th, the platform will no longer promote her free Twitter Blue subscribers via its For You feed recommendation algorithm.
One of Elon Musk’s biggest changes since taking over Twitter is starting Twitter Blue. It pays just $8 a month (or $11 a month for mobile purchases) and gives any account a verified badge.
Twitter power user offal(opens in new tab) frequent criticized(opens in new tab) Twitter Blue Subscriber. After all, who’s paying for a free website? Well, thanks to some new data, we know a little more about Twitter Blue subscribers.
Researcher Travis Brown tracking Twitter Blue subscriptions(opens in new tab) Since January, nearly half of all users who have recently subscribed to Twitter Blue have less than 1,000 followers. That’s about 220,132 paying subscribers.
Additionally, of the 78,059 paid Twitter Blue subscribers, fewer than 100 users follow the account. That’s his 17.6% of all Twitter Blue subscribers.
Breaking down the follower count even further, there are 2,270 paying Twitter Blue subscribers with zero followers.
This shows that a significant portion of Twitter Blue subscribers are not even able to crack four-figure worth of followers.
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Brown does not have access to Twitter’s inside information, but his methodology has proven to be highly accurate when Twitter Blue’s subscriber counts are investigated. leaked(opens in new tab) From Twitter before. Brown said he could get about 85% to 90% of Twitter Blue’s subscribers.
According to his data, Twitter Blue currently has a total of 444,435 paying subscribers. Given the limitations of using the Twitter API to pull this data, Brown tells Mashable he estimates that Twitter likely has about 475,000 paying subscribers. .
That means less than 0.2% of Twitter’s 254 million daily active users. share(opens in new tab) Musk pays for Twitter Blue.
Twitter Blue has few traditional verified accounts subscribing
While the verified checkmark appears to be the subscription’s main draw, Twitter touts other features that come with the subscription service, but most of the touted benefits have yet to launch. yeah. Users can edit specific tweets, add more than 280 characters of her to the post, and attach longer videos.
If these added Twitter Blue perks appeal to anyone, it’s Twitter power users. But according to Braun data, only 6,482 traditional verified accounts have paid to join Twitter Blue.
In total, there are approximately 420,000 traditional verified accounts, mostly celebrities, professional athletes, journalists, influencers and other high-profile users who have received the Checkmark badge for free under Twitter’s old verification system. .
However, these traditional authenticated accounts will soon be gone. Elon Musk is planning some big changes to his Twitter over the next few days to highlight Twitter Blue subscribers.
Musk first announced Twitter plans to remove the blue checkmark badge from traditional verified users on the platform, i.e. celebrities, journalists and other high-profile account holders. This means that only people who are currently paying will be verified on Twitter.
And on Monday, masks share In the coming weeks, only Twitter Blue subscribers will be recommended to users in the platform’s For You feed.
Twitter is already struggling to grow Twitter Blue’s paying subscriber base. Do traditional verified accounts sign up for Twitter Blue to keep the blue check mark? Judging by Twitter sentiment, not many people want to. Even Twitter itself reportedly noticedpaid checkmark verified users are often shunned(opens in new tab) by other users on the platform. Also, deprecating traditional validation could further strengthen the blue check mark as a scarlet letter on the platform.
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Actor William Shatner caught Mr. Musk Note(opens in new tab) when he criticized(opens in new tab) A decision to remove his blue check mark.Actor Jason Alexander core(opens in new tab) The problem: The real purpose of the blue checkmark has always been to prevent fake accounts from impersonating you, but now Musk has deprecated that utility. The reason I chose to stay active on Twitter over the platform was originally due to the traditional verification system. Alexander said he has no intention of staying on Twitter even after the traditional verification badge is removed.
many Twitter power user(opens in new tab) Those who have interacted with Twitter Blue subscribers mostly describe them as far-right accounts, cryptocurrency scammers, and avid Elon Musk supporters. We’ll soon find out if filling users’ feeds with the least influential accounts on the platform, as Musk plans, is a good business strategy.
