Elon Musk, the owner of X, has revealed plans to introduce two new subscription tiers on the platform, as part of a strategic move to boost profitability. One of these tiers will be offered at a lower cost compared to the existing $8 per month X Premium subscription, while the other will come at a higher price point, offering an ad-free experience.
Musk made the announcement on a recent Friday, explaining that the more expensive subscription tier would eliminate advertisements for subscribers, whereas the lower-cost tier would continue to display ads. This development is seen as a proactive step by the billionaire to increase the platform’s revenue and achieve profitability by the early months of 2024.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has also confirmed the company’s commitment to becoming profitable in the near future. The introduction of a $1 fee for new users on the platform, currently being tested in New Zealand and the Philippines, was one of the company’s recent moves. This fee is not primarily intended for profit generation but is instead aimed at curbing the presence of bots on the platform.

However, despite Musk’s optimism and efforts to make X a profitable venture, traffic statistics for the platform do not appear to reflect the expected surge in user engagement since Musk’s acquisition in October of the previous year. Contrary to Musk’s statements that more users are joining X and that they are actively generating content, recent data paints a different picture.
According to a recent report, X’s daily active users have declined by 3.7% to 245 million since Elon Musk took ownership of the company. These metrics were derived from a comparison between new statistics released by the company and figures previously shared by Musk.
Furthermore, Similarweb, a web ranking platform, reported a significant year-on-year decline in X’s traffic in September 2023, marking one year of Musk’s ownership. The overall traffic on X, previously known as Twitter, exhibited a 14% decrease, while Musk’s X profile experienced a 96% increase in traffic year-over-year in September.
In the United States, where a substantial portion of Twitter.com’s web traffic originates, traffic saw a decrease of 19% in September. Similar trends were observed in other countries: a decline of 11.6% in the UK, 13.4% in France, 17.9% in Germany, and 17.5% in Australia. Similarweb pointed out that Musk’s ongoing disputes with the media could further undermine X’s utility as a news source and diminish Twitter’s significance as a traffic source for publishers.
Despite these challenges, Elon Musk continues to explore new avenues to make X a profitable venture. The introduction of ad-free and lower-cost subscription tiers may help to boost revenue, and further strategies are likely to be implemented to stimulate growth and user engagement on the platform in the coming months.
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