Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service offered by the social media platform, may soon undergo another significant change. According to a report by The Independent, Twitter Blue signups made via Twitter"s website will now incur a monthly fee of $7, while transactions made through the iPhone app will cost $11.
Twitter has reportedly decided to charge a higher price for Twitter Blue subscriptions made through the iPhone app in order to provide Apple with its 30% cut of in-app purchase proceeds without significantly impacting Twitter"s bottom line. The difference in pricing is expected to encourage most customers to sign up for the service on the web, thus allowing Twitter to avoid in-app purchase fees.
Twitter is not the only company to have implemented this strategy. In the past, other companies like Spotify have also charged higher prices for subscriptions made through the iPhone app than on the web. However, this often leads to confusion among consumers who do not understand why the prices vary depending on the device they are using. Despite this, Apple does not have a problem with companies charging more for in-app subscriptions than on the web.
The proposed change in pricing for Twitter Blue comes a week after Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, tweeted that Apple had "threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won"t tell us why." In response, Apple"s CEO Tim Cook invited Musk to the company"s headquarters in Cupertino, California for a meeting. According to a later tweet by Musk, the two had a "good conversation" and resolved the misunderstanding regarding Twitter"s potential removal from the App Store.
In addition to the new pricing model, Twitter Blue is also set to offer different verification badges for different types of accounts. Company Twitter accounts will receive a gold mark, government accounts will receive a gray mark, and individual accounts will receive the traditional blue mark. However, before any account is granted a verification mark, Elon Musk has stated that the account will be "manually authenticated" before the verification badge is activated. It is not yet clear what this authentication process will entail.
It is possible that Twitter Blue signups will become available again as early as this Friday, at which point we may be able to get a first glimpse of any changes to the pricing model. However, this is not yet confirmed.
Source: The Information via MacRumors