Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced on Friday that the social media platform will begin taking a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first year, as part of its efforts to monetize content and diversify its revenue sources. Musk had previously stated that users would be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content, including long-form text and hours-long video, and that Twitter would not take a cut for the first 12 months. The company’s cut from subscriptions on iOS and Android platforms will drop to 15% in the second year from 30% in the first.
Musk has been implementing changes at Twitter to boost revenue after the platform saw a drop in advertising income last year in the run-up to his $44 billion acquisition that closed in October. Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had previously supported Musk’s acquisition of the site, has begun criticizing the new owner and his handling of the deal. Dorsey wrote on Bluesky, the invite-only Twitter alternative that he’s backing, that Musk has not proven himself to be the best possible steward for the platform and that the board should not have forced the sale.
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has cut a majority of its staff and faced a number of public crises, including over its plan for verifying users. Musk has proposed a subscription service for Twitter in which users can obtain a blue check mark for $8 a month, but Dorsey has criticized the plan, stating that “payment as proof of human is a trap” and that “the payment systems being used for that proof exclude millions if not billions of people.”
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