Twitter’s Blue subscription tier counts just 180,000 paying users as of the middle of last month, a figure that represents 0.2% of the social media app’s monthly active users, according to a report from The Information.
The news comes just two months after Twitter Blue’s launch via an obtained company document, per The Information.
The 180,000 Blue subscribers represent 62% of Twitter Blue’s total global subscribers, implying the app has 290,000 subscribers for the premium offering in total. Whereas the platform’s blue checks once represented verified accounts, Musk’s Twitter is making the feature available for anyone willing to pay $8 a month through a desktop browser or $11 a month from Apple’s iOS.
With cursory number-crunching, it appears that the global subscriber base as it stands could bring in $28 million in revenue per year, which would be “less than 1%” of the $3 billion in sales revenue Musk projects. The multi-billionaire entrepreneur told employees in November, when he took over Twitter, that he was bullish on half of the company’s revenue being generated from subscriptions.
At the time prior to Musk’s leadership, Twitter Blue generated around $4 million per year annually, The Information reported, citing “two people familiar with the matter” and adding that “the number could still grow significantly” from the current $28 million.
Twitter’s revenue projections for the current quarter were expected to reach $732 million, a number that “would be over a third lower than for the same period last year.”
Musk’s Blue subscription is in flux at the same time that a $1.2 billion annual interest payment on the $13 billion in assumed debt from the $44 billion acquisition is coming due.
Still, The Information points out there is room to grow because “Twitter hadn’t heavily promoted Twitter Blue sign up,” the site reported, citing reviewed internal messages.
Additionally, the app hasn’t made legacy verified accounts convert to Twitter Blue subscriptions, which Musk said was going to be done in a few months. There were 420,000 legacy verified accounts as indicated by who the platform’s @verified account follows.
