Twitter really wants to cash in on its new verification system and brands could be the ones holding the bill.
As reported by The Information, the company is considering charging brands $1,000 per month to keep their gold verification badge on the social media platform. Incredibly, that $1,000 per month will only cover their main account. If a brand has affiliation accounts, those accounts will cost an extra $50 per month each in order for the additional accounts to stay verified.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, took to Twitter to share a screenshot of the email that was sent to one brand by someone at Twitter revealing the change.
As an early access subscriber, you’ll get a gold checkmark for your organization and affiliation badges for its associates…If you’d like to subscribe, Verified for Organizations is $1,000 per month, and $50 per additional affiliated handle per month with one month of free affiliations.
Brands will commonly run multiple accounts on social media. For example, Apple has a separate account for Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, etc, etc. So, with that $50 per month being tacked on for affiliate accounts, that initial $1000 per month could get quite higher depending on just how many accounts a brand runs on the platform.
The news comes a few days after it was revealed that Twitter will also start charging for use of its API, a move also made to bring in revenue for the company as it continues to struggle to win back advertisers since Elon Musk’s takeover last year. Some estimates say that Twitter’s advertising revenue fell as much as 70% since Musk acquired the company.
The company recently shut down third-party Twitter clients as well, effectively destroying some beloved services like Twitterrific and Tweetbot. The path forward under Musk continues to point to a consolidation in order to change users and brands over to continuously paying customers.
