Musk considers charging all X users monthly fee

[reader]

From Thai PBS World

Paris, France –  Elon Musk has sparked outrage among fans of his social media platform X by suggesting he might introduce a monthly fee for all users, in what would be the biggest shake-up since he took over the site then known as Twitter last October.

During a talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Musk said that introducing a small monthly payment for X would combat the “armies of bots” on the site.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion but has since admitted its value has plunged after he gutted its workforce and allowed right-wing conspiracy theorists back on the site, sending advertisers fleeing.

X users united in dismay at his latest plan, suggesting it could finally put an end to the site, and analysts questioned the logic of a move that would make the platform even less appealing to advertisers.

Musk said in July the platform had lost roughly half its advertising revenue, though he has also claimed that almost all advertisers had returned.

Bots — accounts run by computer programs rather than humans — are common on X, where they can be used to amplify political messages or racial hatred.

 

[omega]

A nominal fee that makes it too expensive to run bots, but is well within the price range of 99% of real users wouldn't be a huge problem, I don't think.

 

Might also tone down some of the trolls if they're having to link payment info to their account

[forky123]

I left Twitter quite some time ago when I realised that Tweets presented for your viewing weren't things you were interested in but instead things to antagonise and provoke reactions. Twitter is one of the main forms of Antisocial Media. I can't imagine that charging to use the platform will be a success in improving things and any "small charge" will likely be the thin end of the wedge. 

[vinapu]

I visit Twitter or X  every few days only to check last feed of Moonlight Bangkok  no, I will not pay for the privilege

[floridarob]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

I visit Twitter or X  every few days only to check last feed of Moonlight Bangkok  no, I will not pay for the privilege

All I see is porno, I don't even know how to tweet, lol

[fedssocr]

I'll miss the porn, but I suppose I'll find it somewhere else

[caeron]

Musk has destroyed twitter. This latest attempt to save it will only hasten its demise if he implements it. Whatever the fee, too many won't bother and it will wither and die.

Perhaps when it finally goes bankrupt, somebody who has a clue will buy it and attempt to revive it. If so, I wish them luck. It never had a viable business model and Musk's idiocy really didn't help. Does he really think advertisers want to be on a platform where he tweets that the ADL is the cause of anti-semitism on Twitter?

I never much paid attention to him before he bought twitter, but I am now completely baffled how a man so stupid could be so successful so far. 

He flushed all the brand equity of the  name twitter because he has an alphabetic fetish for the letter X. The mind boggles. The mind also stays well away from the place for now. I miss the porn, but I'm not being part of that shit show.

[fedssocr]

3 hours ago, caeron said:

Musk has destroyed twitter. This latest attempt to save it will only hasten its demise if he implements it. Whatever the fee, too many won't bother and it will wither and die.

Perhaps when it finally goes bankrupt, somebody who has a clue will buy it and attempt to revive it. If so, I wish them luck. It never had a viable business model and Musk's idiocy really didn't help. Does he really think advertisers want to be on a platform where he tweets that the ADL is the cause of anti-semitism on Twitter?

I never much paid attention to him before he bought twitter, but I am now completely baffled how a man so stupid could be so successful so far. 

He flushed all the brand equity of the  name twitter because he has an alphabetic fetish for the letter X. The mind boggles. The mind also stays well away from the place for now. I miss the porn, but I'm not being part of that shit show.

He's a good con man, essentially. He built a cult that has made him very wealthy. He did see the importance of electric cars and managed to muscle his way in to running Tesla. And promised all kinds of things he never delivered. And he was smart enough to corner the market on satellites and taking astronauts to the space station.

[PeterRS]

And he tried his hand at midget submarines which did not work. When told they were an idiotic idea during the Thai cave boys rescue, he called the one man who knew of the cave and did as much as anyone to free those boys and their coach a "pedo". He was taken to court in Los Angeles but successfully argued that "pedo" does not mean pedophile (which we all know is precisely what he meant); rather it is a slang term in his native South Africa meaning "a creepy old man who does not have sex with children." And to think the judge bought that! I wonder who bought the judge!

[reader]

Wouldn't surprise at all if Musk ends up bankrupting X just for his personal pleasure--and the huge tax write off. Meanwhile he's chasing business deals with the new Thai PM in New York.

From The Thaiger

Business magnate Elon Musk is set to discuss potential investment opportunities in Thailand with the Thai delegation via a teleconference. This news was shared by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is currently attending the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) in New York.

The prime minister revealed that the Thai government is seeking to attract foreign investors and will be meeting executives from major corporations such as Microsoft, Google, and Tesla.

“Elon Musk has now accepted an invitation to attend talks with the Thai government’s delegation via teleconference.”

Notably, high-profile executives from Microsoft, BlackRock, JP Morgan, and Estee Lauder have also accepted invitations to these talks.

 

[fedssocr]

See I thought about the bankruptcy angle as well. But he has lots of powerful investors who underwrote all of those loans he took out and they might not be so excited about lighting all of their money on fire. However they had to know the odds weren't good that this money-losing business he was overpaying for was going to be a good investment in the first place.

[Moses]

21 hours ago, vinapu said:

I visit Twitter or X  every few days only to check last feed of Moonlight Bangkok  no, I will not pay for the privilege

 

19 hours ago, fedssocr said:

I'll miss the porn, but I suppose I'll find it somewhere else

He plans to get payments for publications. So you should not to worry about payments for watching.

[vinapu]

1 minute ago, Moses said:

He plans to get payments for publications. So you should not to worry about payments for watching.

thanks for clarifying, I took ' users ' as everybody who logs there. 

Anyways no penny from me whatever he decides 

[Moses]

22 minutes ago, vinapu said:

I took ' users ' as everybody who logs there. 

Correct, but you don't have to be logged in for to watch and read if you know addresses of pages via normal browsers.

[fedssocr]

did they fix that? Because a couple of months ago they started requiring you to be logged in to see anything

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, Moses said:

Correct, but you don't have to be logged in for to watch and read if you know addresses of pages via normal browsers.

actually, no. 

I'm using address https://twitter.com/Moonlight_Silom.

When I go there without logging I see different things in different order than when I log in as prompted ( I log using gmail account)

Without logging I can't see most recent posts which in fact is what I'm looking for. Just checked second ago to make sure I'm not BSing.

The same on Edge or Chrome 

[fedssocr]

11 hours ago, Moses said:

 

He plans to get payments for publications. So you should not to worry about payments for watching.

Actually he means all users. He's claiming again that most users are bots and that the weed them out he wants to charge everyone a few dollars per month.

[PeterRS]

As the richest man in the world, Musk clearly thinks he can do or say anything he wants. He has been wooing China for quite some time as he wants to open Tesla plants there. So naturally he has been spouting off his desire to see China reunified with Taiwan.

A possible problem for Musk is that if he plans to sell in China he faces competition. The Chinese BYD company of which Warren Buffet is a shareholder sells more electric vehicles than Musk's company. But it does so because it keeps profit margins low and therefore the price is cheaper. SInce 2015, EV prices in China have dropped by 50% and now stand at around $32,000. Similarly an EV is priced around 27% lower than a petrol car. According to the US Environment Protection Agency, the average cost of an EV in the USA this year is $37,300 and that cost is more expensive than a petrol car.

Little doubt that he plans to export his Chinese made Teslas, if he gets the relevant permits to open factories. There are still many companies around the world where the EV market is either in its infancy or is non-existent. 

[fedssocr]

He already has plants in China that make a large percentage of his cars. I think they might even have a plant in Xinxiang

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-china-made-ev-sales-july-down-31-mthmth-2023-08-03/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/business/tesla-china-sales-surge-intl-hnk/index.html

China's government offers subsidies for electric vehicle production which is helping reduce the price of the cars.