Twitter launches Twitter Blue in India for a monthly fee of ₹650

Microblogging platform Twitter’s subscription service Twitter Blue is now available in India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Launched on February 8, users of these regions will now be able to opt-in for a monthly paid subscription service to add a blue checkmark to their Twitter accounts. 

In India, the service is available for a monthly fee of ₹650 (₹7,800 per year billed monthly) for the web application and ₹900 for Android and iOS devices. Reportedly, the higher price for the mobile app version is due to the commission fee levied by Apple and Google on subscriptions. Users may also opt for a discounted annual plan of ₹6,800. 

Users subscribing to the paid service will see fewer advertisements on the platform, will be able to post longer videos, organise bookmarks, customise app icons, and get early access to new features from Twitter Blue Labs, among other benefits. 

Notably, on February 3, Twitter chief Elon Musk said that the platform would share ad revenues with creators for the ads in their reply threads. This is only applicable to Twitter Blue subscribers. 

Starting today, Twitter will share ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2023

The Twitter Blue paid service in the US was launched in December 2022 for $8 (over ₹650) for the web app and $11 (over ₹900) for iOS devices. As per The Information’s February 6 report, 180,000 users in the US have currently subscribed to the service, which is just 0.2% of the active user base in the country. Globally, 290,000 people have subscribed to the Twitter Blue service. 

Twitter Blue is one of the initiatives under Twitter’s new boss Musk to diversify revenue streams. As per a January 18 report by Platformer, the company’s daily revenue dropped to 40% year-on-year. To be sure, more than 500 top advertisers on Twitter have stopped spending since Musk took over in October. Since the acquisition, Musk has enforced stringent cost-cutting measures, including laying off over 6,000 employees (from 7,500).