Twitter Blue will cut ads by 50%: Musk

Twitter’s subscription service Twitter Blue, which was relaunched on Monday, will show fewer advertisements as compared to the free version, chief executive Elon Musk announced. Musk also said that another premium plan with no advertisements will be rolled out next year.  

“Basic Blue will have half the number of ads. We will offer a higher tier with no ads next year,” Musk said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.  

Twitter Blue was relaunched on Monday with premium features such  as verification checkmarks, ability to edit tweets and upload videos in higher resolution. Fewer ads is another perk to get users to sign up for the premium service.  

Monthly subscriptions for Twitter Blue start at $8 for users who sign up on the web, while Apple users will have to pay $11 per month. The higher price tag for Apple users can be attributed to the 30% commission that Apple charges for in-app payments.  

Online ads reportedly account for close to 80% of Twitter’s revenue, which has seen a massive decline since Musk’s $44 billion takeover in October. Several brands including Pfizer, Mondelez, United Airlines, Audi and Volkswagen reportedly suspended ads on the platform over concerns related to how Musk will moderate content, especially hate speech. 

Many have criticised his stance on free speech, fearing that it might increase hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Musk also reinstated many of the previously banned accounts including that of former US President Donald Trump.  

Musk said last month that Twitter has suffered a “massive drop in revenue” due to brand pulling out ads. Though Musk didn’t specify the revenue loss due to drop in ads, he said at that time that the platform is losing $4 million every day. Twitter slashed half of its nearly 7,000 workforce to cut its losses. It also fired its board and several top executives including former chief executive Parag Agrawal.  

According a November report by Statista, Twitter has 237.8 million daily monetisable daily active users. Many of its users have started exploring other similar microblogging platform such as Mastodon, which has a seen a 6,000% increase in downloads since Musk's takeover.