Elon Musk has announced that two new tiers of X Premium subscriptions will be launching soon.
One of the options will cost less than the current $8 per month plan but will not have a reduction in ads, while the other will be more expensive and will block all ads.
The exact costs of each tier are yet to be confirmed.
Why we care. This move could potentially have a significant impact on advertisers who invest ad spend in X, depending on the uptake of the zero-ad subscription.
Why now. Since Musk took-over X last year, ad revenue has dropped 59% and the company has been eagerly exploring new ways to generate revenue.
What X is saying. Musk revealed last month that he was planning to make X a paid-for platform for all users. During a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he claimed this was the most effective way to tackle the issue of rampant bot activity. He said:
- “The single most important reason that we’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system is that it’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”
- “Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny, or a tenth of a penny, but if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost of bots is very high, and then you also have to get a new payment method every time you have a new bot.”
- “We’re actually going to come out with lower tier pricing. We want it to be just a small amount of money [and] in my view, this is actually the only defense against vast armies of bots.”
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Deep dive. Read our previous report on X’s ad revenue performance for more information.
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