Elon Musk: Social Media Platform X Could Go Behind Paywall

... all users of X, formerly called Twitter, may have to pay for access to the platform. ...

Mr Musk has a revenue problem with X. He may try to deflect from that revenue problem by giving other reasons for the subscription charge. But the bottom line is that Mr Musk has a revenue problem.

By charging for subscriptions, Mr Musk also then gains access to some financial info (via the credit cards used by subscribers) which he can bundle with the other info X gathers on subscribers and make the personal data "packages" he sells to others more valuable.

Speaking of Mr Musk and revenue...

Starlink Has A Small Fraction Of The Customers It Originally Promised Investors
www.techdirt.com

... With that as context, it's not particularly surprising that Starlink has signed up significantly fewer customers that originally projected. A paywalled Wall Street Journal report (see this non-paywalled Ars Technica alternative) notes that a 2015 Starlink investor pitch claimed that by last year Starlink would have 20 million subscribers and generate nearly $12 billion in revenue and $7 billion in operating profit.

Actual Starlink revenue for 2022 was $1.4 billion. And the company only has around 1.5 million users worldwide; a far cry from the 20 million originally predicted. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband is a sector riddled with failures, so the fact Starlink has reached this point is notable. ...

@#9 ... All they'd get is transactions through Twitter ...

Combined with all the other X has about you, e.g., which websites you visit, etc.

... This screams desperate attempt to control bot accounts which massively devalue the platform. ...

I'm still not convinced of that.

What has devalued the platform looks more to be Mr Musk's policies since he took over.

@#11 ... Yet the DNC and major Dem pols all buy advertising on it still. ...

X's ad revenue problem is not due to what political ads do or don't do, but to the huge advertising budgets of corporations going elsewhere because the corporations do not want their products advertised next to the hate-speech that seems to be so prevalent on X of late.

While X may have a bot problem, the loss of significant revenue looks to be due more to Mr Musk's policies.

So, will getting rid of the bots really help X's ad revenues?

@#13 ... Just political ads are worth $2.1 billion last year in sales. ...

More next year. Much more. My guess would be double that overall.

But Twitter and X had banned political ads until recently, so there's no knowing how much of that political ad revenue will go to X.

While some politicians would revel in their ads being seen on hate-speech pages, I suspect that may be a minority of the politicians.

X to allow paid political ads, lifting Twitter's earlier ban (August 30, 2023)
techcrunch.com

... X this week confirmed it's lifting its ban on paid political ads " a move it committed to earlier this year, shortly after Elon Musk took over the social network previously known as Twitter. The company had originally banned such ads back in 2019 under then-CEO Jack Dorsey's management, claiming at the time that "political message reach should be earned, not bought."

The company had defined the banned content as "content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome," it said.

The ban also encompassed a broad range of content, including any ads that appealed for votes, solicitations of financial support and advocacy for or against any of the above-listed types of political content. ...

Regardless, it will be interesting to see the chapters unfold in this continuing soap opera called, "X."

btw, for the overall amount spent on advertising..

Spending on advertising
https://www.theworldcounts.com/economies/global/spending-on-advertising

@#18 ... Elmo changes the subject when Bibi brings up the anti-semitism which is flourishing on Twitter. ...

Wow... so Mr Musk apparently intentionally avoided the question poised to him ...

From the article cited in @18 ...

... And Musk has faced claims of antisemitism and allowing hate speech to proliferate on his social media platform X. During the meeting, which was streamed live on X, Netanyahu told Musk: "I hope you can find within the confines of the First Amendment the ability to not only stop antisemitism as best you can, but any collective hatred of the people that antisemitism represents."

He later added, "I encourage you to find the balance."

In response, Musk tried to redirect the conversation to his interest in free speech, saying that he was "in favor of that which furthers civilization and which ultimately leads us to become a space-faring civilization." ...

.... In response, Musk tried to redirect the conversation ...

Wow., just friggin' wow. Mr Musk tired to redirect the conversation to allowing his apparent love of hate-speech.

And, just what sort of "civilization" does Mr Musk want?