Saudi: Twitter Blue Subscription Service Expands to the Kingdom
The Twitter Blue subscription service launched by Elon Musk to raise fresh revenue has been expanded to six more countries, including Saudi Arabia. France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain have also been added, making it 12 regions in total to which users can subscribe to it.
The subscription adds a blue checkmark to an account and offers early access to features such as edit tweet, longer video, NFT profile pictures and custom app icons.
The initial launch of Twitter Blue led to turmoil as a wave of fake accounts with the new blue ticks parodied US presidents, well-known dead people and large companies.
The blue check mark was previously reserved for the verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures.
Newly created Twitter accounts are not able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days.
In the United States, Twitter Blue costs $11 per month on Apple’s iOS and Android, while it is slightly cheaper at $8 for the web version. In Saudi Arabia, it will cost 42 riyals ($11.2) per month.
Mr Musk’s efforts to ramp up revenue come after he said the company was losing $4 million per day.
On Thursday, Twitter announced that it will end free API access and that a paid basic tier will be available instead. More details will be released next week, it said.
