Elon Musk's Twitter Blue Subscriber Base Growth 'Hasn't Even Doubled' Month After Relaunch

Elon Musk‘s highly-ambitious and controversial Twitter Blue subscription model is not attracting as many users as he’d have liked, according to a report by a software developer. 

What Happened: Travis Brown, a software developer in Berlin, stated that the Twitter Blue subscriber count “hasn’t even doubled” a month after its relaunch. 

See Also: Elon Musk May Be Courting One Controversy After Another But Twitter Has Anyway Climbed To Top Of iPhone US News Charts

Brown was referring to the initial launch of Twitter Blue on Nov. 5. The site stopped accepting more users on Nov. 11. The subscription plan then attracted roughly 140K users, while the second inning has “somewhere between 275K and 325K subscribers in total.”

Why It’s Important: The Twitter Blue revamp model — that allows users to access additional features, including the coveted blue checkmark, by paying $8 per month — is an integral part of Musk’s Twitter 2.0. 

Musk’s decision to monetize the blue checkmark received massive backlash from netizens and celebrities like author Stephen King. It also led to an increase in the number of verified-but-fake accounts that impersonated leading brands and personalities, creating chaos on the microblogging site. 

Since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, the company has been surrounded by controversial decisions, chaotic updates and tons of negative feedback. 

In December, Musk stated that before the acquisition, Twitter was being scammed "$60 million per year for SMS texts."

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