Elon Musk: Twitter to take 10% cut on content subscriptions after one year

Users will be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content such as long-form text and video

Elon Musk has been bringing in changes at Twitter to boost revenue after the platform saw advertising income drop last year. AP

Twitter chief executive Elon Musk said on Friday that the social media platform will take a 10 per cent cut on content subscriptions after the first year, as the company looks to monetise content on the website in a bid to diversify its revenue sources.

Earlier this month, billionaire owner Mr Musk said users of the social media platform will be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content, including long-form text and hours-long video.

He had also said that the company will not take a cut for the first 12 months on content subscriptions.

Mr Musk has been bringing in changes at Twitter to boost revenue after the platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run up to his $44 billion acquisition that closed in October.

He added that the company's cut from subscriptions on iOS and Android platforms will drop to 15 per cent in the second year from 30 per cent in the first.

Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey — once a supporter of Mr Musk’s acquisition of the site — is now offering sharp criticism of the new owner and his handling of the deal, Bloomberg reported.

Asked if Mr Musk has proven himself to be the best possible steward for the platform, Mr Dorsey said, “No. Nor do I think he acted right after realising his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale.”

After stock markets turned shortly following his offer to buy Twitter a year ago, Mr Musk sought to withdraw from the deal. That prompted a legal battle between the company and the billionaire, before the acquisition was completed at its original offer price.

“It all went south,” Mr Dorsey wrote on Bluesky, the invite-only Twitter alternative that he’s backing.

Mr Dorsey, who was friendly with Mr Musk for years and suggested he get involved with Twitter, was previously publicly in favour of the deal.

Last year, he called Mr Musk as owner of Twitter “the singular solution I trust”.

On Friday, one Bluesky user said it was pretty sad how it all went down, to which Mr Dorsey replied “yes.” But Twitter “would have never survived as a public company”, he added in another post.

“Would you rather have had it owned by hedge funds and Wall Street activists? That was the only alternative.”

Under Mr Musk, who took over in late October, Twitter cut a majority of its staff and endured a number of public crises, including over its plan for verifying users.

Mr Musk has been pitching a subscription service for Twitter in which users can obtain a blue check mark for $8 a month.

“Payment as proof of human is a trap and I’m not aligned with that at all,” Mr Dorsey said on Bluesky. “The payment systems being used for that proof exclude millions if not billions of people.”