$4.99 monthly seems quite high for something that was free.
Okay I'm wrong. The correct quote is: “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” ― Hubert H. Humphrey
Maybe if he'd lived into the internet age, he'd have gone with my quote. There ain't time to hear everybody on the net, or Twitter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_identity_card#As_el...
that's been working. I think we're behind the curve here; it should be easy to very strongly verify my identiry to any online business I choose to do that with; without government taking the lead, every damn company is going to be expensively reinventing that wheel.
On Twitter you can be the most vile person possible with absolutely no fear as you're entirely anonymous.
1) Some users would pay extra to be anonymous or pseudonymous to users of the site (but not to corporate Twitter)
2) Most users would be under the real verified name but no blue check to say this is their real name. No charge (unless just for the initial verification, maybe.)
3) Blue check users pay to show everyone they are not just a person, or just a person of the same name shown, but a person (or company) of note with that name. (And the most well-known person with that name.)
4)? "Ordinary" or less well-known people should be able to pay a little for, say, a blue circle (but no check) that shows they are not pseudonymous accounts and any geographical location, job description given has been verified.
What people don't realize is that each individual account is like purchasing a business. There are way too many similarities to think of it any differently.
When you buy an account, you get all the DMs which often include a whole network of traders, promoters, service providers, negotiations, trade lines. Typically you also get the email address and password used to create the account, which has even more of this.
You are mostly getting ROI pretty quickly by doing a few promos really quickly. Its actually based on a multiple of getting ROI.
Purchasing an account is a fairly low trust environment, fraught with scams. Most social media Terms of Service actually exacerbate this, by mostly banning the concept of buying/selling an account. Since this happens, the platform should actually be facilitating these transactions and there is a lot of value to extract. Escrow services charge 30% right now, but a network of trusted traders is better and more valuable.
With that said, $4.99/mo for the tip of the iceberg of the value of these accounts is extremely underpriced. Tolerable overhead costs are in the thousands if we are being honest. This should be its own separate tier than just "Twitter Blue", as it will price out too many people to operate at scale, but this is definitely a model that is neglected by social media platforms right now.
Statistically, of course it's a large increase. However from a business perspective I do not think so. A quick search indicates there are 294,000 accounts, and at 4.99 a month that would yield Twitter $1,467,060 a month, which is hardly anything. Especially as I imagine ~10-15% of those accounts will decide to forgo the badge, either in protest or because they just don't care.