Elon Musk proposes a "slight cost" for commercial, government Twitter users
Elon Musk has also recently talked about taking Twitter beyond its current niche userbase, and bringing it back to the public markets in a few years.
One of the driving forces that created positive public sentiment for Elon Musk's purchase of
was the knowledge that the board had not properly monetised the platform, and had failed shareholders.Musk has now proposed a new source of revenue, to charge a small fee for those government and commercial users of the platform.
In a tweet, he clarified that this would not affect everyday users. He said, "Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users."
Even before his bid for Twitter became public knowledge, Musk spent a lot of time suggesting changes to the platform, including open source algorithms, human verification, bot deletion, and more.
This is the latest suggestion from the world's richest man, though seemingly the first designed to improve the company's finances directly.
Speaking at the Met Gala in New York City over the weekend, Musk told reporters that he planned to take Twitter beyond its current niche userbase.
"Right now it's sort of niche. I want a much bigger percentage of the country to be on it, engaging in dialogue," he said.
While the changes he envisions for Twitter hinge on his proposal's ability to gain complete control of the company, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mush does plan to list the company publicly soon, perhaps within three years.