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In an effort to stick it to Apple and their App Store, reports indicate that Elon Musk will have Twitter charge $11 for the Twitter Blue subscription service, but only for iPhone users. Paying for the desktop version of Twitter Blue, for example, will still cost $7.99.
The decision from Musk and Twitter already comes following an initially botched rollout of Twitter Blue. While Musk previously said it would relaunch on November 29, that date came and went without the feature resurfacing.
Twitter has informed some employees that it plans to change the pricing of its Twitter Blue subscription product to $7 if users pay for it through the web and $11 if they do so through its app for iPhones, according to a person briefed on the plans.
Twitter had previously said it plans to charge $7.99 for Twitter Blue, which was then only available for purchase through Apple’s App Store. The change in pricing is likely a reflection of the 30% cut that Apple takes on revenues from apps for iOS, its operating system for iPhones and iPads. [via The Information]
Musk has spent recent weeks accusing Apple of being “against free speech” because they reportedly considered removing Twitter from the app store following the spike in hate speech on the app that’s coincided with Musk’s takeover.
According to the New York Times, hate speech of all kinds has spiked since Musk acquired the social media app:
Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day. Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day. And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.
Musk — who paid a reported $44 billion for Twitter and officially acquired the company on October 27 — certainly faces an uphill battle when it comes to convincing Twitter users to give the company $132 per year, which would make it — by far — the most expensive major social media app sans LinkedIn (considering they’re all free).
The social media account Culture Crave ran an informal poll asking users if they planned on signing up for Twitter Blue. After over 52,000 votes, a whopping 95% said “no” while less than 5% said “yes.”
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