Pay for Blue Tick: After Chirping on Twitter, Will ‘Free’ Koo Be the New Nest for Users?

Pay for Blue Tick: After Chirping on Twitter, Will ‘Free’ Koo Be the New Nest for Users?

Billionaire Elon Musk, who now owns the microblogging giant Twitter, wants users to pay $8 (Rs 661.53) per month to be verified and get the blue tick. As of 2021, Twitter has approximately 300,000 verified users worldwide.

In a series of Tweets, Musk stated that to have a ‘blue tick’ would cost $8 per month for users in the US, but the “price could be adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity". This could mean that for Indian users the price could be different.

It is unknown how many blue tick users exist in India alone. News18 reached out to Twitter to find out the details, but hasn’t received any response at the time of writing this report. The existing data, however, showed that in the list of leading countries based on the number of Twitter users, India ranks third, after the US and Japan, as of January 2022, with over 23 million users.

After Musk’s tweets became viral, Mayank Bidawatka, Co-Founder of Koo, which is the indigenous rival of Twitter, told News18: “Koo had launched a self-verification process, granting a ’green tick’ to empower every user on Koo to be recognised as a genuine voice."

What Industry Predicts

“Additionally, the ‘yellow tick’ is given to eminent personalities so that users can find the right eminent personality. All this is done without any charge," he noted.

He also tweeted saying: “All the lovely, verified handles here on Twitter, you are welcome to join @kooindia and ping me here on comments for a ‘FREE’ instant verified tick! Don’t pay Rs 650 per month."

However, whether Musk’s decision to charge users for ‘blue tick’ would help Koo to gain more users is a matter to keep an eye on.

Meanwhile, Mithun Vijay Kumar, a content management professional, author, and political analyst, told News18: “Unsystematic business decisions and their abrupt nature are traits peculiar to Musk." He believes that the subscription model is likely to affect Twitter users worldwide.

(Source : News 18)