Twitter Blue struggles: Out of 150,000 early subscribers, over 80,000 cancel service

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company has been attempting to find new ways to generate revenues. One such avenue was the launch of the Twitter Blue subscription service in November last year. However, nearly six months on, it appears that Twitter Blue might be struggling massively as over half of the early adopters are no longer subscribed to the service.

Musk's version of the subscription service has only been able to convert around 640,000 users into Twitter Blue subscribers as of the end of April, according to a Mashable report.

However, the more telling statistic is that of nearly 150,000 early Twitter Blue subscribers, only 68,157 have stuck around and maintained the subscription which costs $8 per month ($11 on mobile). Meaning over 80,000 or 54.5 per cent of users had cancelled their subscriptions.

The high churn rate (the percentage of users that unsubscribe from a service) of Twitter Blue has surprised domain experts. For an online subscription service, such a rate is abnormally high and one that is not sustainable in the long run. According to a study, the average churn rate for subscription-based businesses stands at around 5.57 per cent.

One of the major reasons for early adopters to not stick around with the service might be Twitter's decision to disable new signups shortly after the launch. Notably, after scammers and pranksters used Twitter Blue to create havoc by changing their names to popular personalities and entities, the company was forced to press pause on the service.

It was only after a mechanism was worked out to avoid such a situation that the service was rolled out again. However, the negative publicity may have irked many who preferred to not renew their subscription, according to experts.

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Twitter attempts to generate more revenue

Twitter last turned a profit in 2019 but since then, it has been recording historic losses. After Musk completed the $44 billion takeover last year, he vowed to trim the books and bring the company on the path of profitability.

In an attempt to do so, hefired more than 80 per cent of the Twitter staff. Afterwards, the billionairestarted the Twitter Blue subscription serviceunder which any user can get the blue checkmark after paying the fee and providing identification proof.

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Last month, Musk informed that creators on Twitter will be able to charge certain money from users to access their content, ranging from 'longform text to hours-long video'.

Creators have been given the freedom to offer monthly subscriptions in the $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 bracket. Musk, in a tweet thread, informed that for the next 12 months, the creators will be making most of the money as Twitter will not charge anything.

(With inputs from agencies)

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