Elon Musk to Introduce Two New Premium Tiers on X

• Elon Musk
• X

Elon Musk, renowned entrepreneur and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has confirmed the imminent introduction of two new premium tiers on the platform. This announcement confirms previous reports and code sightings regarding the rollout of these new subscriptions.

“Two new tiers of X Premium subscriptions are launching soon. One is lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive but has no ads.” - Elon Musk.

The first new tier is set to be priced lower than the current $8 per month plan and will retain all the platform's features, including ads. The second tier, priced higher, will offer an ad-free user experience. Musk did not disclose the exact prices of these new tiers. The current premium plan, promising to show "half ads" to subscribers, falls between these two new tiers.

Reactions to the EU Court Ruling

The move by X follows recent developments in the social media landscape. In response to a recent EU Court judgment, Meta is reportedly considering an ad-free tier option for users who decline consent for the company to process their data. TikTok, too, has confirmed its testing of an ad-free tier. It remains to be seen whether introducing these new tiers on X is a direct response to the EU Court ruling.

Attempts to Drive Revenue

These new premium tiers are part of a more significant effort by Musk and his team to drive revenue for X. Earlier this week, the company initiated a trial of a $1 per year plan for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines. This plan offers basic functionalities such as posting, liking, and reposting. X stated that the primary goal of this move was to curb the number of bots on the platform and not necessarily to drive profit.

Since Musk's takeover of the platform, ad revenue has reportedly been on a steady decline, as per a report by Reuters. This makes introducing new revenue streams through subscription tiers a strategic move to bolster revenue. As the company works to attract advertisers under former NBCU exec Linda Yaccarino's CEO leadership, it strives to publish appealing metrics. Yaccarino recently stated that X has approximately 245 million daily active users and 500 million daily posts.