The end of Twitter is closer than you think. Yes, I’ve been saying that since Elon Musk took over and turned the once popular social media site into a cesspool of hate among other things. But this news brainwave from Elon shows that he’s officially out of ideas and is unable to get the site to make money. Remember when Elon said that he would charge a small fee to stop bots from taking over the platform? Well, it’s happening. This appeared overnight that details the fact that Twitter is testing a subscription feature called “Not A Bot”. The test will be conducted with new accounts on web in New Zealand and the Philippines. Here’s how it works:
- Users in the two test countries are required to verify their phone number.
- Successful verification then leads to the next step which is paying $1 USD a year to interact with others on X.
And if you don’t pay, you can only read Tweets. You won’t be able to do anything that any free account can currently do.
My thoughts on this are as follows. First, this will not deter bots. Because bots are already running rampant on the platform, and some even have verified checkmarks. Meaning that they’re paying to be on the platform. All this does is lower the bar of entry for bots. Or put another way, they’re getting a discount to be on the platform under this scheme.
The thing is, the bot thing has always been cover for Elon. The real end goal for Elon is to use this as a means to force people to pay to use Twitter. The problem with that logic is that traffic to Twitter has been in free fall since he took over. Which suggests that less people are using Twitter today than a year ago. Or that people are using Twitter less as there’s no value in using Twitter anymore. Perhaps both. Thus getting people to serve up $1 a year is not going to be a money maker. But to be fair, the “Not a bot” document kind of suggests that. Not that I believe it though.
Mark my words, Elon will at some point try to make this a world wide thing. Then he’ll jack the price on it in another desperate attempt to make money. And that will put one of the final nails in Twitter’s coffin.
Get your popcorn ready.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on October 18, 2023 at 8:32 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Twitter Is Testing A $1 Charge For Users To Allegedly Stop Bots
The end of Twitter is closer than you think. Yes, I’ve been saying that since Elon Musk took over and turned the once popular social media site into a cesspool of hate among other things. But this news brainwave from Elon shows that he’s officially out of ideas and is unable to get the site to make money. Remember when Elon said that he would charge a small fee to stop bots from taking over the platform? Well, it’s happening. This appeared overnight that details the fact that Twitter is testing a subscription feature called “Not A Bot”. The test will be conducted with new accounts on web in New Zealand and the Philippines. Here’s how it works:
And if you don’t pay, you can only read Tweets. You won’t be able to do anything that any free account can currently do.
My thoughts on this are as follows. First, this will not deter bots. Because bots are already running rampant on the platform, and some even have verified checkmarks. Meaning that they’re paying to be on the platform. All this does is lower the bar of entry for bots. Or put another way, they’re getting a discount to be on the platform under this scheme.
The thing is, the bot thing has always been cover for Elon. The real end goal for Elon is to use this as a means to force people to pay to use Twitter. The problem with that logic is that traffic to Twitter has been in free fall since he took over. Which suggests that less people are using Twitter today than a year ago. Or that people are using Twitter less as there’s no value in using Twitter anymore. Perhaps both. Thus getting people to serve up $1 a year is not going to be a money maker. But to be fair, the “Not a bot” document kind of suggests that. Not that I believe it though.
Mark my words, Elon will at some point try to make this a world wide thing. Then he’ll jack the price on it in another desperate attempt to make money. And that will put one of the final nails in Twitter’s coffin.
Get your popcorn ready.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on October 18, 2023 at 8:32 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.