Elon Musk, the owner of X and CEO of Tesla (TSLA), has proposed the idea of implementing a small monthly fee for all users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. This move is seen as a strategy to combat the increasing presence of bot armies on the platform and to revitalize momentum for Meta Platforms' Threads app.
During a livestreamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Musk discussed the need for a payment system to tackle the issue of bots. However, no specific details regarding the charge amount or timeline were provided. X representatives declined to comment when contacted by 's on Tuesday.
Musk has been actively making changes to X since taking over the platform, including a rebranding and plans to expand into the finance sector. Implementing a charging system for all users would undoubtedly be one of Musk's most controversial decisions, but it could potentially drive more users towards Meta's Threads as they seek free alternatives.
Meta successfully launched Threads in July as a direct competitor to Twitter, amassing over 100 million users in a short period. However, recent data from analytics firm SimilarWeb indicates a decline in daily active users to less than 10 million. Despite Threads not serving as a significant revenue source for Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed interest in monetization once the platform reaches one billion users.
Achieving this ambitious goal could be facilitated by an exodus of X users to alternative platforms. Musk stated during his conversation with Netanyahu that X currently has 550 million monthly users, but it remains unclear how this figure compares to the platform's previous metric of 217 million daily active users at the end of 2021.
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