Twitter Blue is expected to roll out in India in less than a month, Elon Musk confirmed on November 5.
“Hopefully, less than a month,” was the tech billionaire’s reply to a user asking him when Indian users could expect to get access to Twitter Blue.
Musk’s reply comes just hours after it was reported that Twitter’s iOS app has been updated on the Apple App Store to reflect the new $8 cost of its premium subscription service, Twitter Blue. For now, it is only available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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While the platform will continue to be free for users, paying the $8 means that users will get access to a slew of new features. For now, however, only the blue tick that indicates a user account is verified, is part of the Twitter Blue subscription.
Other new features that are listed as “coming soon” will be fewer ads, the ability to post longer videos and finally, ensuring that a users content gets priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches. “This helps lower the visibility of scams, spam, and bots,” according to the update description.
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Earlier this week, Musk had proposed revamping how user verification works on Twitter by suggesting a $20 monthly fee that people must pay in order to retain the blue tick on their accounts. However, after backlash from the platform’s power users, Musk was bargained down to $7.99, a price he has remained uncompromising on, for now.
Then, on Friday, Twitter was hit by mass layoffs as the new owner fired more than half of the company’s 7,600 employees. In India, nearly the entire team was let go as roughly 180 from its 230 employees were let go. While people were sacked across departments, the entire marketing and communications team was fired.
In a tweet explaining the reason behind gutting half the company, Musk wrote that he had “no choice” as the company was losing $4 million a day.
