Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday teased plans to monetize Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR), a platform he calls “the bedrock of a functioning democracy” and where he has promised to return free speech after completing his $44 billion take-private deal.
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What Happened: The billionaire entrepreneur said he plans to keep the microblogging site free for casual users while charging commercial and government users a slight fee.
Musk in an earlier Tweet said, “the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stone cutting services for nothing.”
Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 3, 2022
Why It Matters: Musk reportedly plans to monetize Twitter and boost cash flow, including potential subscription services to drive recurring revenue.
The microblogging site already has a premium subscription service called Twitter Blue, launched in June 2021 in Canada and Australia and in the United States and New Zealand a few months later.
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The service costs $2.99 a month in the U.S. and comes with several features not offered to free users, such as bookmarking folders of saved tweets, a reader mode and a 30-second window to edit a tweet that is already live.
The world’s richest man has been in talks with private equity firms and banks to fund the mega takeover expected to close later this year.
Price Action: Twitter closed 0.55% lower at $48.87 on Tuesday.
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