By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Twitter decides to relaunch its “Blue Tick” or verification services but Apple users will pay 30% more due to the Apple tax.
Elon Musk‘s recently acquired social media platform Twitter has decided to relaunch its blue tick verification services later today, December 12. As a result, Twitter will offer verified status to its users at $8 a month or $11 a month on their iPhones.
Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has been keen on bringing paid subscription services for users in order to revive the company. Last month, Twitter released its verification services, however, some users took advantage of the fact by launching bogus “verified” accounts for public figures and top companies.
As a result, they decided to temporarily pullback the launch. However, they are once again coming back with the launch of the same services. The official handle of Twitter noted:
“We’re relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday – subscribe on web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark”.
Twitter also stated that “verified” users will get more prominence on the platform over non-paying users. It also added that subscribers would “rocket to the top of replies, mentions and search”
Twitter believes that giving priority to subscribers would help them combat “scams and spam”. This has been one of the biggest concerns for Twitter over the past few years. Elon Musk has also been working hard to make the platform bot free. On Sunday, Musk gave an open invitation to Twitter bots to attack his profile.
Cool, the bots are so far unable to swarm to the top of my replies!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
As per their official website, Twitter’s blue tick and verification service are “currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand”.
Key Benefits Offered to Twitter’s “Blue Tick” Subscribers
Some of the additional facilities that subscribers of Twitter’s Blue Tick get is the ability to edit tweets. Twitter launched a trial of this service earlier this year in September. Back then, the company allowed Twitter “Blue Tick” subscribers to edit the tweet up to 30 minutes after publishing it. However, it came with a symbol that showed that it’s been modified.
Other facilities for the subscribers include the ability to post longer tweets and half the number of adverts. Besides, Twitter is also planning to introduce a color-coded verification scheme. For e.g. government verified accounts will receive a grey tick while businesses would be getting a golden tick.
Twitter hasn’t explained why it’s charging more to iPhone users over other normal users. However, one clear fact is that Apple has been charging 30% fees in the form of Apple tax for payments done through apps residing on its platform. This could probably be one of the reasons behind the $11 pricing for iPhone users.
In the past, Elon Musk has said that Twitter wants to be less dependent on advertising which contributes 90% of the company’s revenue.