X, formerly Twitter, today announced the launch of a new experiment to charge a $1 per year fee to “new, unverified users” who want to interact with posts. The company said this test is currently in effect in New Zealand and the Philippines and existing users will not be affected.
Users will be able to post content, like, repost, reply, favorite, and quote posts by paying these fees. New free users will simply get a read-only account to view posts and follow accounts.
The company’s support account clarified that this “Not A bot” program is not a profit driver, but it’s hard to take the reason at face value. The Elon Musk-owned company said the program would help it reduce spam.
“This new test was developed to enhance our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity while balancing platform accessibility with low fees. This is not a source of profit,” the company said.
On its support pagethe company announced that it would share the results of the program’s effectiveness in combating spam.
The move comes after Musk said X plans to charge users “a small monthly payment” to use its service. Although payment for the testing program is annual, the philosophy is the same.
In June, X (which was Twitter at the time) began requiring users to log in to the site to view posts. A few days later, the platform removed this requirement and allowed logged out users to view posts.
A recent report from market information company Simialrweb suggests that traffic on X fell a year after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition. The company took drastic steps to cut costs and start making a profit.
Last month, the company’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, said in an interview that X would be profitable in 2024. During the interview, the former NBCU executive dodged the question about fees to users.
X currently only has one paid plan at $8 per month. However, according to newly discovered code, the company could introduce three premium tiers, including one entirely ad-free.
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