Social media platform X is set to test a new $1/year subscription plan

X, formerly known as Twitter, will start a new phase of testing plans that will be more elaborate than its X Pro plan (Twitter Blue). This new subscription-based plan will charge all users planning to interact on the social media platform. The new subscription charge would be around $1 per year.

Elon Musk, chairman of X, has made it a priority to remove bots from the platform. He firmly believes that a minimum charge will reduce the number of spam and automated bot accounts. This new feature is already being tested in New Zealand and the Philippines, as confirmed by X.

After the announcement, Elon Musk posted on X, “Read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”

What would happen if someone did not want to pay the nominal fee?

X has stated that users who are not willing to pay for the new subscription won’t lose access to their account. They will face restrictions on writing, liking, or bookmarking posts. X has assured that users will still be able to look at other posts.

X justified their decision to start a subscription plan in a blog post. According to the blog post, "This assessment will explore a potentially effective strategy to counteract bots and spammers on platform X. It aims to strike a balance between maintaining platform accessibility and implementing a nominal fee, all without impacting existing users during this trial period."

In the first half of 2023, X launched their new subscription-based plan called X Pro. This plan cost around Rs 650 in India via the X website and Rs 900 via the Android and iOS apps. X has not mentioned whether the pricing of this new plan will have different pricing in the App Store or Play Store. They have specifically mentioned that X Pro users won’t have to pay anything extra for the new $1/year plan.

X wants to monetize their users.

X wants to diversify their revenue stream. This approach has massively gained traction since Elon Musk took charge of the social media company in 2022. During that time, the company had a debt of $13 billion. Due to this debt, X has to pay around $1.2 billion every year in just interest. This situation got worse after some advertisers decided to leave the platform due to concerns about content safety rules.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, unveiled fresh revenue-generating strategies during a meeting with bankers. X intends to roll out a three-level premium service and introduce additional income-generating features, including shopping and payment functionalities.