How much would Musk make if all the blue ticks on Twitter paid $ 8 a month?

“All for $ 8”. “All for 8 dollars”. Per month.

Elon Musk, on Twitter, makes fun of himself with a meme: on the one hand the figure designed for those who want it blue tick (and other premium features) on social; on the other a photo that portrays him in the role of a warrior, as he showed up at the Halloween party of supermodel Heidi Klum.

Initially the entrepreneur had thought of a much more expensive subscription, equal to 20 dollars. Then an exchange of views with the writer Stephen King – a sort of deal that went viral on Twitter – Musk has changed his mind, or perhaps he has just formalized what he had already decided: “Twitter cannot live on advertising alone. How about $ 8? “.

We do the calculations.

In 2021, according to the Guardian, there were about 400,000 verified users – therefore with a blue check – on Twitter. A more recent article from Bloomberg, published in these days, claims that these users are currently 300 thousand.

If everyone was willing to pay $ 8 a month to keep their status, Twitter would gross about $ 7.2 million per quarterfor a total of 86.4 million dollars per year.

Not much, considering that Twitter made $ 1.2 billion from advertising alone in the second quarter of 2022. And that’s not much when you take into account the loans that the banks have given Musk to buy Twitter: 12.7 billion dollars of the total 44 billion needed to complete the agreement. A debt that the banks themselves will freeze until the beginning of 2023, pending a business plan from the new owner to be presented to investors.

The calculation of potential revenue from existing verified users, among other things, he is certainly optimistic: several celebrities have already left Twitter, after the advent of Musk, and many say they are not willing to pay to keep their blue check, which was born as a certification of the user’s identity. . And which, however, over time, has transformed into a real one status symbol. So much so that Musk, in announcing Twitter Blue for $ 8 a monthhe referred to the end of a model he envisaged “Gentlemen and peasants”therefore, between those who could count on the prestigious check and those, on the other hand, who were considered garbage because they did not have it.

Just this pushed “from below”it could somehow generate profit. In offering anyone who pays a blue check, Musk says: “Power to the people!” But this power actually it translates into a profit for your company. Which in a small way, as we have seen, the entrepreneur wants investing in publishing and content creatorsto ensure that quality content stays on the platform and attracts advertising investments.