Elon Musk has announced plans to launch two new tiers of premium subscriptions for social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
Commenting on the plans via X, the tech entrepreneur and owner of the social media app, said the new offering will include a lower cost package with all features and ads, and a more expensive ad-free subscription.
Twitter was renamed X in July following Musk’s $43 billion takeover of the platform, as part of his plans to develop a super app inspired by the Chinese messaging app WeChat.
Musk had previously revealed he was mulling over plans to charge all users of the app a monthly fee to combat the use of the platform by bots.
Indeed, X has begun testing the new subscription method dubbed ’Not A Bot’, this month for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.
New sign ups in those countries will be charged an annual fee of $1 to use the app and its various features. New users who opt out of subscribing would only have access to “read only”, such as, read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts.
X said the project was designed to reduce spam, manipulation of the platform and bot activity.
According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, Meta is also preparing to charge users in the European Union a US$14 a month fee if they do not agree to allow the tech giant to use their data to deliver targeted advertising.
It also reportedly aims to charge US$17 a month for the use of Facebook and Instagram as a bundle for use on computers.
Meanwhile, TikTok has also begun testing an ad-free subscription tier in one English-speaking market outside the US, according to reports by Android Authority and Tech Crunch.
