Twitter has always had trouble turning a profit, so its future owner is brainstorming how to bring in more cash in public.
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| Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/The Met Museum/Vogue (Getty Images) |
Elon Musk is brainstorming a genius plan to “unlock Twitter’s potential” in public via tweet. He’s already said he might charge third parties to embed tweets. Now the Tesla CEO says he might charge businesses and governments for tweeting.
In a tweet late Tuesday, which seem to be his preferred way to develop and broadcast his brilliant ideas, Musk stated that Twitter will always be free for casual users, but that there “maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users” in the future. Musk, whose bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion was accepted at the end of April, did not provide any additional details in his reply to a cryptic tweet about the Freemasons.
Currently, not much is known about Musk’s plans to ramp up development at the social media network. He has said that free speech on the platform is vital, and he’s expected to significantly cut back Twitter’s moderation policies. Recent reports about his private talks with banks suggest that the tech magnate has proposed “new ways to make money out of tweets that contain important information or go viral,” which would include charging third party websites to embed or quote tweets from verified accounts.
In the statement announcing his acquisition agreement with Twitter, Musk made vague pledges about launching new features and cleansing the platform of spam bots. (He has tweeted that he will “defeat the spam bots or die trying!”)
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” Musk said on April 21. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Also on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had told potential investors that he planned to take Twitter public again in as little as three years. He has been speaking to investors who could possibly help fund his $44 billion takeover, which he’s planning to pay in part with loans. Of that amount, he has agreed to come up with $21 billion on his own.
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