Tech billionaire Elon Musk announced on Friday that social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is set to introduce two premium subscription tiers.
The first of these subscription tiers will be priced lower, targeting users seeking a cheaper way to access all of X's premium features. Musk said the other subscription tier will be more expensive but feature an ad-free browsing experience.
Earlier in October, X began rolling out a US $1 annual charge for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines. This new program is in addition to X's main subscription of $8 per month. New X users who do not pay the $1/year fee will only be able to take "read-only" actions, such as reading posts, watching videos and following accounts,
Since Musk bought X last year, he has been trying to encourage users to pay for an enhanced version of the service, which is now called X Premium. X has given paid subscribers more features, such as longer posts and increased visibility, to make the platform more attractive to them.
After taking over the popular social media platform in October 2022, the tech billionaire initiated a slew of controversial changes, including mass layoffs, disbanding of content moderation teams, and rebranding Twitter as X.