Twitter chief Elon Musk announced in a series of tweets on Saturday that the company’s subscription service will show users fewer ads, including on an ad-free tier.
The announcement comes at a time when the social network has faced great economic uncertainty since its acquisition by Mr. Musk in October.
“Ads are too frequent on Twitter and too big. Taking steps to address both in coming weeks,” Mr. Musk posted on his Twitter account on Saturday.
And for those who choose it, “there will be a higher priced subscription that allows zero ads,” Musk said.
This would mark a radical change in the business model of Twitter, which until now has relied on targeted advertising to generate revenue, before launching a paid subscription service in mid-December.
But the ads have recently become a question mark for Twitter after Musk fired nearly half of the company’s 7,500-strong workforce late last year.
The move sparked concerns that the company had insufficient staff to carry out content moderation and intimidate governments and advertisers.
Musk said that his strategy was to massively reduce costs while building up revenue and that a new subscription service called Twitter Blue, which asks users for a Blue verification tick for a fee, would will help reach that goal.
The service costs $11 a month in the United States and is available on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems, according to a page on the company’s website.
Web subscriptions are also available for $8 per month or, at a discount, $84 per year.
Twitter Blue is currently available in the USA, UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan, Australia.
Musk-led Twitter has been hit by mass layoffs, the return of banned accounts, and the suspension of journalists critical of the South African-born billionaire.
Elon’s takeover also saw an increase in racist or hateful tweets, drawing scrutiny from regulators and the pursuit of large advertisers, which are Twitter’s main source of revenue.
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Information Source: NDTV