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A compelling proposition. That’s how Twitter’s latest changes, announced by Elon Musk in his characteristically effusive tweets, could be described. The world’s richest person appears to be placing his bets on a scenario where some of the best content creators would continue to countenance his supposed toxicity in light of Twitter’s unmatched reach and appeal.

The Twitter Blue premium subscription tier is available for $8 per month or $84 per year. The subscription entails the coveted blue checkmark as well as access to a number of features, including the ability to edit tweets.

Apply to offer your followers subscriptions of any material, from longform text to hours long video!

Just tap on “Monetization” in settings.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2023

A couple of hours back, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce that creators would soon be able to provide their subscribers and followers with a wide variety of content, ranging from long-form text to hours-long videos. These changes would place Twitter as the direct competitor of Google’s YouTube. This subscription option is available to all users who are above 18, have at least 500 followers, and have posted a minimum of 25 tweets within the last 30 days.

For the next 12 months, Twitter will keep none of the money.

You will receive whatever money we receive, so that’s 70% for subscriptions on iOS & Android (they charge 30%) and ~92% on web (could be better, depending on payment processor).

After first year, iOS & Android fees…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2023

Additionally, in what constitutes a coup de grâce, Elon Musk announced that Twitter would pass on the entirety of its earnings from subscriptions to content creators for a period of one year. This equates to 70 percent of the total subscriptions on iOS, given Apple’s cut of 30 percent, and around 92 percent of the subscription-based monetization derived from Twitter’s webpage (after subtracting the roughly 8 percent cut of the payment processors).

Finally, Twitter would actively promote such creators, who would be free to exit the platform with all of their content at any time.

These changes are apparently a direct challenge to Substack, which recently launched its Twitter-like Notes service. In a related controversy, Elon Musk unfollowed the Twitter account of Matt Taibbi – the journalist who published the so-called Twitter Files a few months back with much relish – last week when he indicated his preference to stick with Substack Notes going forward to protest the social media giant's decision to degrade its relationship with Substack.

Readers should note that Elon Musk had revealed during a Twitter Space meetup hosted by the BBC that almost all of the advertisers who had abandoned ship in the wake of the social media giant's change of ownership have now returned. Accordingly, Musk expects the global town square to become cash flow positive this quarter.

Of course, the last few days have been characterized by the controversy around the “government-funded media” label that Twitter has now pegged on the likes of NPR and BBC, prompting the former to cease all activity on the social media platform in protest.

I will pay a million Dogecoin for proof of this mine’s existence!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 12, 2023

In another weird controversy that erupted recently, Elon Musk announced a bounty of 1 million Dogecoins to any person who could prove that his family owned an emerald mine in South Africa. Of course, Musk’s own father has alluded to the mine in two interviews, one with Forbes, which has since then been removed and is only available as an archive, and the other with the New Yorker.

While Elon Musk’s penchant for delving headlong into fresh controversies continues to keep some content creators at bay, the lucrative monetization avenues that Twitter is now offering just might prove impossible to resist for a vast majority of this cohort, including those who ideologically hate all things Musk-related.