Musk may find it hard to make his proposed changes for Twitter work
The former Twitter staff member, who chose to remain anonymous, worked in a consumer and competitive research role for several years. In this role, he was responsible for conducting market research by testing new ideas that may help the social media behemoth grow. He told Fast Company that Twitter has tested hundreds of different ideas “related to everything from monetization to timeline layout” over the years. These included many of Musk’s “new ideas” too. “We’ve already explored at least 75% of the ideas I’ve seen coming out from Elon and Jason Calacanis,” the former Twitter employee said. The company did extensive research on topics such as subscription, verification, and paying creators. The new Twitter CEO is now making changes to these systems without proper research and testing. Twitter Blue, for instance, didn’t appear to be a “big moneymaker” for the previous regime. Not many users were willing to pay for it. The higher the price, the lower the interest. However, one of the first things that Musk did after taking over Twitter is increased the Blue subscription cost by a whopping 60 percent (from $5 a month to $8 a month). He threw the coveted blue tick as part of the subscription to lure more people, but the decision backfired. The Twitter Blue is gone now, though we might soon have it back. But the bottom line is that the idea failed because Twitter didn’t do proper research or testing of the revamped service. Creator monetization is also something that Musk often talks about when discussing the future of Twitter. He wants to enable monetization for all forms of content. But the company had already explored this idea and not many creators showed interest. Creators likely find Twitter as a place to connect with their followers and fans. For making content, they prefer platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. So Musk may have a hard time realizing this idea too.
Putting Twitter behind a paywall could be catastrophic
There have also been rumors of Musk considering putting the whole of Twitter behind a paywall. However, this isn’t a new idea either. And this is an idea that may be catastrophic if he proceeds with it. More than ninety percent of Twitter users are not willing to pay for the service. “I’m not sure that Elon understands how small Twitter is from a DAU [daily active users] perspective compared to the other platforms, and how easy it is for others to basically trade off platforms,” the former employee said. Musk recently said that he wants to make Twitter “the everything app”. But this may be a bad idea too. The social network shouldn’t deviate too much from its core, which is “what’s happening?” the former employee said. Time will tell if Musk succeeds in reshaping Twitter into “the town square of the internet” with freedom of speech.
