Feeling Blue, but Not Smelling Green

Erin Woo, reporting for The Information:

Around 180,000 people in the U.S. were paying for subscriptions to Twitter, including Twitter Blue, as of mid-January, or less than 0.2% of monthly active users, according to a document viewed by The Information. The tiny number signals the challenge Elon Musk faces in turning the subscription product into a major source of revenue.

The U.S. number is about 62% of Twitter’s global subscriber total, the document says, which implies Twitter has 290,000 global subscribers. Twitter is charging $8 a month for Blue Verified on the web and $11 a month for those who sign up via Apple’s iOS, although Apple keeps 30% of that fee.

All together, the global number of subscribers would equate to around $28 million in annual revenue — less than 1% of the $3 billion Musk has said Twitter aims to make in revenue this year. In November, days after assuming control of Twitter, Musk told his new employees he wanted half the company’s revenue to come from subscriptions.

Hard to believe people aren’t jumping at the chance to pay $8/month for a website that is crumbling before our eyes. Lucky for Musk, advertising is down too, so maybe if ad revenue keeps dropping, subscriptions will account for half of Twitter’s revenue.

★ Monday, 6 February 2023