Tag Archives: Twitter Blue

More Than Half Of Twitter Blue’s Earliest Subscribers Flew Away

Twitter,

Twitter Blue’s struggles since its launch nearly six months ago are more severe than previously revealed, new data suggests. Since Musk’s version of the subscription service launched last November, Twitter has only been able to convert around 640,000 Twitter users into paying Twitter Blue subscribers as of the end of April, Mashable reported.

Mashable also reported that while those numbers are lackluster, an even more telling detail about Twitter Blue is just how many of its earliest subscribers have canceled their subscriptions.

Out of about 150,000 early subscribers to Twitter Blue, just around 68,157 have stuck around and maintained a paid subscription as of April 30. Subscriptions are $8 per month – $11 on mobile.

According to Mashable, the total early subscriber numbers are linked directly to internal leaks published by the Washington Post last year showing that at total of 150,000 users originally signed up for Twitter Blue within just a few days of its launch in November. Twitter temporarily disabled new signups for about a month shortly after those users subscribed as a result of accounts signing up for Blue with the intent to impersonate major brands on the platform.

Mashable noted, that means around 81,843 users, or 54.5 percent, of Twitter users who subscribed to Twitter Blue when it first launched in November are no longer subscribed to the service. That’s an abnormally high churn rate for an online subscription services. Churn rate is the percentage of uses that unsubscribe from a service.

Twitter Blue is a paid offering from Twitter which provides subscribers with premium feature such as an edit button. However, it appears the most enticing features for subscribers are Musk’s featured additions to the service – namely the blue verification checkmark and the algorithm boost that provides Blue subscribers with prioritization in the For You feed and in the replies to tweets.

However, numerous Twitter Blue users have voiced their displeasure to Musk publicly on the platform about what they believe to be inadequate amounts of boosted reach. Mashable previously reported in March that around half of Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 1,000 followers.

Mashable reported that so few large accounts were formerly verified under Twitter’s old, pre-Musk verification system had signed up for Twitter Blue, that the company has since given out free “complementary” subscriptions to the service to many users with at least 1 million followers.

Personally, I have noticed that some celebrities on Twitter have publicly posted that they were not paying for Twitter Blue. As an example, Stephen King tweeted: “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t.”

I think the only reason some celebrities who have over 1,000 followers were given a free Twitter Blue subscription was to make it look as though Twitter Blue was popular. Information from Mashable makes it clear that Twitter Blue isn’t as popular as Elon Musk wants the world to think it is.

Twitter Introduces 10,000 Character Long Tweets For Blue Subscribers

Twitter

Twitter has introduced a new feature that will let Blue subscribers post 10,000 character-long posts – as if the social network is trying to compete with a rival newsletter platform. Along with this, Twitter has also added support for bold and italic text formatting, TechCrunch reported.

In February, the social network introduced 4,000-character long tweets for Blue subscribers to encourage people to publish longer posts instead of threads, TechCrunch also reported.

The @TwitterWrite account posted the following on April 12, 2023:

“We’re making improvements to the writing and reading experience on Twitter! Starting today, Twitter now supports Tweets up to 100,000 characters in length, with bold and italic text formatting.

Sign up for Twitter Blue to access these new features, and apply to enable Subscriptions on your account to earn income directly on Twitter. Tap on “Monetization” in settings to apply today.”

According to TechCrunch, the company’s push for long-form writing comes at a time when Elon Musk is introducing creator monetization tools. On Thursday, he announced that creators can apply for monetization and offer subscriptions to users. For the next 12 months, Twitter will give all money to creators after paying Apple or Google their 30% cut. Post that, the Apple/Google tax will reduce to 15% and the social media company will take a small fee from creators.

Currently, creators can offer subscriptions at per-month prices of $2.99, $4.99, and $9.99. Twitter’s rules indicate that creators need to be at least 18 years old, they need to have 10,000 active users, and they need to have tweeted at least 25 times in the last 30 days to be eligible for monetization.

Engadget reported while a 10,000-character limit sounds excessive for most casual users – that’s around 2,000 words, or a pretty lengthy essay – Twitter likely introduced the capability for people looking to make money off their posts. The company just rebranded “SuperFollows” as “Subscriptions,” allowing users to charge people for exclusive content, including subscriber-only chats in Spaces. Twitter also promised not to take any of their earnings for the next 12 months.

Personally, I’m not interested in this new, 10,000 character feature that Twitter has rolled out. It seems to me that in order to use it, you need to purchase Twitter Blue, apply for monetization, and have at least 10,000 active users. That’s not likely to work for the majority of Twitter users.

There are other options available for those who want to write long-form posts. You could decide to get a Substack account. According to Substack, it is free to get started. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack will keep a 10% cut of revenues for operation costs like development and customer support.

Another option is to get a Tumblr account, where you can post pretty much anything you want for free. If Tumblr isn’t your thing, you could set up a blog of your own. There’s plenty of options out there beyond Twitter Blue.