Elon Musk Is Basically Zero Percent Of The Way Towards His Goal In Signing Up Users To Twitter Blue

Business Models

from the like-a-fucking-rocketship dept

Soon after he announced his plans to buy Twitter, Elon Musk’s investor pitch leaked, and it was every bit as ridiculous as people have come to expect from Musk. One thing it included was a plan to reduce Twitter’s reliance on advertising, which (in a vacuum) is not a terrible idea. However, he seemed very, very sure that he’d be able to convince people to sign up for Twitter’s paid “Twitter Blue” subscription plan. The pitch deck noted that he expected 69 million subscribers by 2025.

Now, most people immediately recognize the use of 69 here to be yet another one of Musk’s obvious tells that he’s pulling these numbers out of his ass. But, investors completely overlooked that and seemed to think that Musk had the golden touch and were willing to back him based on his reputation alone, and to ignore his sophomorically weak attempt at making jokes with his projected numbers.

Either way, Musk has certainly reduced Twitter’s ad revenue, but it doesn’t look like he’s been all that successful in replacing it with subscription revenue. The Information reported this week that the new Twitter Blue has 180,000 subscribers in the US and 290,000 total (many publications are focusing on the 180k number, but the 290k seems more important). Twitter Blue is currently launched in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. So, in theory, there are still some places to expand, though it’s not clear that Twitter is all that popular in those countries. At the current price, Twitter’s Blue program is bringing in somewhere around a whopping $2.32 million per month. That is… not much.

Of course, some of us pointed out this was likely to be the result months ago. And, a big part of that is because Musk hasn’t given people any real additional value for signing up, other than signaling to the world that you’re desperately seeking the world’s richest man’s… er… guy who used to be the world’s richest man’s favor on his own platform that he rules through his random whims.

This might also explain why Musk has announced plans to start sharing advertising revenue with Twitter users, but only if they’re Blue subscribers. But, of course, it remains to be seen how that will work, especially with the ever decreasing ad quality, and Musk’s need to keep as much of that dwindling revenue as possible. It seems likely that users who sign up will get pennies back on their $8 monthly nut. And, of course, this will simply create incentives for Musk to increase the number of ads users see, rather than decrease them, as he’s repeatedly promised.

Again, there are all sorts of ways that a well thought out freemium model could work with Twitter, where payees could get access to useful new tools and features. But, that takes foresight, understanding, and planning. And Musk has revealed that he’s not very good with any of those when it comes to social media. No wonder he’s frantically tossing out dumb ideas like charging for basic API access…

Filed Under: elon musk, subscriptions, supporters, twitter blue
Companies: twitter