• Elon Musk has wasted no time making vast changes to Twitter.
• One of those rumoured changes is a price increase for Twitter Blue, which would now include the Blue Check verification mark.
• Engineers reportedly have until 7th November to execute the change or be fired.

Last week Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter and he’s spent the time since making changes to his new toy.

First up, Musk decided that when users visit the Twitter website without logging out, they are directed to the Explore page. According to The Verge, Musk gave no indication of why he requested this change. We suspect Musk wants to show people what they’re missing out on, but as of time of writing that is poorly executed Halloween jokes.

On of the larger changes that are rumoured to be coming is a substantial price increase for Twitter Blue, as well as bundling verification with the Twitter subscription. Yes, soon somebody could have a Verified blue check mark, simply because they gave Musk money.

According to The Verge, Musk is reportedly bumping the cost of Twitter Blue up to $19.99. This fee would include account verification, but it’s the only way one could have an account verified.

This is problematic as Twitter’s blue check mark is a way to know that you are interacting with a legitimate account at a glance. Putting this behind a fee could see fewer high-profile accounts carrying the mark and as a result, the credibility of those accounts, and Twitter as a whole comes under scrutiny.

Should this rumour have merit, those who are currently verified would need to pay for Twitter Blue in order to maintain the verification status.

For the money, Twitter Blue subscribers also get custom icons, the ability to edit Tweets and erm, access to top articles. Yeah so Twitter Blue is not very good and a $19.99 price tag is definitely not tempting. Hell, Musk is asking folks to shell out the equivalent of a Netflix Premium subscription in the US for a blue check mark and some “features”.

Most bizarre of all, Musk has demanded this update be done before 7th November or Twitter staffers will be fired.

Why is Musk doing this? For one Twitter desperately needs to diversify its revenue streams. Most of Twitter’s revenue is generated by advertising. Acutely aware of this, one of Musk’s first statements was to advertisers in a bid to calm them ahead of the changes that were coming.

Those changes including the removal of several C-suite executives including chief executive officer Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. Collectively this trio received separation pay outs totalling $122 million according to Reuters.

The question on the minds of Musk’s investors and other however, is whether Musk can turn Twitter from an ailing social media platform into a flourishing business.

More so, Musk also promised his investors that he can grow the number of monetisable daily users from 198.4 million to 600 million by 2025.

The clock is now ticking.