Micro-blogging platform Twitter is looking for ways to generate more revenue, following its recent plan to auction usernames on the platform.
Recent reports disclose that the social media company is considering organizing an online auction where users can bid for usernames also known as “handles”.
Although, the company’s username squatting policy prohibits attempts to sell, buy or solicit other forms of payment in exchange for usernames which it termed as violations that would result in permanent account suspension.
However, Twitter’s recent plan to auction usernames is coming after the company’s CEO Elon Musk last year December disclosed his decision to free up the namespace of 1.5 million accounts.
That is, Twitter accounts with no tweets or logins for years will be deleted to free up space for names. “These are obvious account deletions with no Tweets and no log-in for years”, he tweeted.
Investors King understands that ever since Musk acquired the microblogging platform for $44 billion in October 2022, which saw him take on $13 billion in debt as part of the deal, he has been carrying out a serious revamp on the platform as well as monetizing so many things to generate more revenue.
Recall that Musk introduced a subscription fee of $8 for users to get the blue tick, which he disclosed that the price would be adjusted by region and country. Musk stated that doing so was essential to defeat spam/scams.
Reports disclose that Musk aims to quintuple Twitter’s revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028. He also anticipates that he can increase Twitter’s average revenue per user to $30.22 in 2028, as he expects to have 11,072 employees by 2025.
Among his other goals, he expects the social media company to bring in $15 million from a payments business in 2023 that will grow to about $1.3 billion by 2028. Musk also aims to increase Twitter’s cash flow to $3.2 billion in 2025 and $9.4 billion in 2028.