It’s been over a week on Twitter Removal Verified vintage blue checkmarks from celebrities, professional athletes, and media personalities. This decision from Twitter owner Elon Musk was meant to nudge users towards Twitter Blue, the company’s $8 (or $11 on mobile) subscription service that is now the only way a user can get a verified badge on their profile.
How is it?
Approximately 619,858 Twitter users have subscribed to Twitter Blue as of the end of April. That’s about $5 million a month or $60 million a year.
Where do Twitter Blue subscriber ratings come from?
The latest data was provided to Mashable by developer and researcher Travis Browne who has been tracking Twitter Blue subscriptions since early this year. Based on previous internal leaks from the company, Brown estimates his methodology for tracking Twitter Blue subscriptions is somewhere around 90 percent of all Twitter Blue users.
Brown estimates there could be between 640,000 and 680,000 Twitter Blue subscribers in total as of April 30th.
For comparison, Snapchat, a rival social networking platform, launched a paid subscription service last June and reached 1 million paid subscribers in just two months. Musk’s version of Twitter Blue launched in November. As of mid-April, Snapchat shared that its premium Snapchat+ service is now available More than 3 million(Opens in a new tab) paying subscribers.
These latest estimates include about 9,000 Twitter users More than a million followers Who got a free “free” subscription to Twitter Blue. The numbers also include users who previously canceled their subscription, yet still appear as paid subscribers due to a I mentioned a long time ago obvious glitch.
When those free subscriptions that were distributed are factored in, Twitter Blue’s net subscriber growth is in line with previous weeks. Unfortunately for Musk, removing heritage-verified Twitter users did not lead to an increase in sign-ups.
Twitter Mayhem Week, Part 1: Before the Ancient Purge
Under Musk’s old Twitter verification regime at sunset, there were approximately 420,000 verified old Twitter accounts.
Of those users, only about 19,183 had signed up for Twitter Blue by April 19, one day before the exact date previously announced for Twitter’s old verified checkmarks to be removed. Somewhere between 600,000 and 635,000 users are subscribed to Twitter Blue at that point.
About 300 other verified users signed up for Twitter Blue between April 19th and when the old verified checkmarks were removed at midday on April 20th. At that point, about 19,469 verified legacy users were signed up for Twitter Blue.
By the time the heritage-verified users lost their checkmarks, less than 4.8 percent of them had signed up for Twitter Blue. Most importantly, three celebrity accounts — those of LeBron James, Stephen King, and William Shatner — were “gifted” in the blue by Musk himself.
Now, finally, with the removal of the old Checkmarks, the big question will be answered: How many Legacy Checked users will feel compelled to purchase a Checkmark now that they no longer have one?
Twitter Mayhem Week, Part Two: After the Purge
314 verified old users signed up for Twitter Blue between the removal of the checkmarks on April 20th and the morning of April 21st. However, many of them have canceled their subscription or lost their check mark pending verification. fetch that net total Of new Twitter Blue verified subscribers only until 28 am after the checkmark is removed.
April 22nd was a strange day. musk I decided to troll A few users who were tweeting about the campaign to ban Twitter Blue subscribers, #BlockTheBlue, By giving them check marks. This included notorious Twitter user @dril as well as the author of this article. However, Musk then decided to also give away a “free” Twitter Blue subscription to more than just the original three celebrities. This time it gave Twitter Blue to almost every user on the platform More than a million followersWhether they want it or not.
Thus, the number of verified Twitter Blue subscribers jumped from around 20,257 as of the morning of April 22nd to 34,969 just one week later. In fact, the number of free Twitter Blue checkmarks being distributed equaled nearly half of all new subscribers in the same week that the old checkmarks were removed. When Twitter Blue checkmark opt-outs and removals are factored in, there were more free Twitter Blue sign-ups awarded that week than total net profit for subscribers (12,010).
Things to keep in mind about these estimates
There have always been some caveats about Twitter Blue subscriber data. As accurate as Brown’s methodology is when compared to the company’s previous internal leaks, it’s only able to attract about 85 to 90 percent of Twitter Blue’s subscribers. However, as of this week’s numbers, Brown believes he has gained more than 90 percent thanks to the acquisition of a new additional data set.
Furthermore, there is a long standing “glitch” whereby previous Twitter Blue subscribers, some of whom canceled their subscriptions months ago, still show up in the Twitter API as paying subscribers. Many of them still have a Twitter Blue checkmark to verify their profile, though their opt-in status warrants its removal. Because the API does not identify these users differently from paying Twitter Blue subscribers, these users are included in the Twitter Blue subscription data.
Therefore, when accounting for those unsubscribed users who still appear as Twitter Blue subscribers and the free subscriptions that were made available to large accounts, the number of Twitter Blue subscribers who actually pay for their subscription is actually less than what our data shows in aggregate. Participants.
Sure, we threw in a lot of numbers and caveats, so let’s break it down:
-
Before the checkmark was removed on April 20, there were 19,469 verified Twitter Blue heritage subscribers.
-
Immediately after the removals, Twitter gained 28 new Twitter Blue heritage verified subscribers.
-
Prior to gifting Musk thousands of “free” Twitter Blue subscriptions, there were approximately 20,257 previously verified heritage Twitter Blue subscribers.
-
In total, there are now about 34,969 Twitter Blue subscribers whose heritage has been previously verified.
-
It appears somewhere around 9,000 to 12,000 of those have been given away for free by Musk.
What’s the next step in paying for Twitter?
With Twitter Blue struggling, Musk is promoting a new subscription-related Twitter feature, simply called Twitter Subscriptions. musk recently open About 25,000 users pay him $4 per month directly as part of this feature in order to access exclusive tweets and other paywall-protected Twitter content. As of now, it’s not clear exactly how this feature works for creators who aren’t Musk.
However, according to Ryan Mack of The New York Times , musk to encourage(Opens in a new tab) Employees to sign up for users who have enabled the feature and then charge the subscription back to the company. We’ll soon know how this promotional tactic works, but it doesn’t seem very sustainable.