Twitter has rolled out its much-awaited 'Blue' service in India, including the famed Blue checkmark and a host of other features, for ₹719 per month. Though Twitter has not communicated the price via its official channels, Twitter India users have received pop-ups on their Apple App Store, asking them to buy the newly launched service that's already been rolled out in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the UK.
Interestingly, at ₹719 (around $8.8), the feature turns out to be more expensive in India than the developed economies like the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, where it's priced $8 per month. This is contrary to what Twitter's new chief Elon Musk had promised earlier. Musk had earlier said that 'Blue' subscription will not be the same across countries and that the price will be adjusted by country proportionate to "purchasing power parity".
Blue offers other features like fewer ads, the option to post longer videos and priority ranking for quality content. Features like better news reading experience, and early access to select new features and extras like the option to choose app icons are also added to it.
Reacting to the development, users questioned Musk's earlier claims. "You've said the price of Twitter Blue will be according to the purchasing power of the country, then why it is costlier in India than the US," a user. Another user said: “Heard that @TwitterBlue is available in India at ₹719/month. This is ₹71 higher than the US rate. ($8=₹648) What was the purchasing power parity you were talking about?"
Even though Musk’s new subscription service is yet to fully take off in India and other parts of the world, the feature has courted controversy -- now spammers are even buying the $8 per month Blue service. In the countries where it's live now, Much to the annoyance of Twitter's new management, a large chunk of users or spammers have also started making fake or parody accounts of key brands or companies.
Twitter's new owner, who bought the company for $44 billion last month, had launched the Blue service in an effort to end the fake accounts and raising spammers' costs. Reports suggest that numerous accounts impersonating political leaders, celebrities and brands – like Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly and political leaders like US president George W Bush and former British PM Tony Blair -- have become a new headache for Twitter management. Such accounts have been mushrooming at a fast pace, creating confusion among users or followers, and tarnishing the brand image of companies and individual personalities.
Sample these tweets:
This has not gone down well with the Twitter boss. Elon Musk took to Twitter on Thursday, saying accounts engaged in parody must include parody in their name or they will face suspension.
"Going forward, accounts engaged in parody must include “parody” in their name, not just in bio. To be more precise, accounts doing parody impersonations. Basically, tricking people is not ok," he said. Indirectly hinting at parody accounts engaging in all sorts of funny activities on Twitter, Musk later tweeted that it was "Quite the day!" for the company and that some of the tweets he saw were "epically funny".
He also said that the usage of Twitter continues to rise and has hit an all-time high. "One thing is for sure: it isn’t boring!" Musk has not spelt out exact details about the rising number of users on the platform. For Musk, monetising the platform to grow revenue streams is the top priority. The platform is heavily dependent on advertisers for revenue. Musk wants to monetise it using the subscription-based formula, while also engaging with quality advertisers.
