Twitter Blue Tick For $8: Will Elon Musk’s Plan Fly In India?

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” tweeted Elon Musk on Tuesday, days after he bought the microblogging site.

People and organisations verified by Twitter will be required to pay $8 (INR 662) a month.

“Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” added Musk.

The irony of the sentence is not lost on anyone.

It is prudent to note here that the blue tick will be different from Twitter Blue, the microblogging site’s ongoing subscription service which costs $4.99 per month.

Twitter Blue allows users to undo/edit their tweets, top free articles feed, among others, and is currently available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Interestingly, the new Twitter owner also announced a number of ‘perks’ for users opting for the subscription. The perks include priority in replies, mentions and searches, ability to post long video and audio content and half as many ads as compared to normal Twitter users.

Further, Musk called on digital publishers to work with the new-look social network to allow verified users to bypass paywalls on their website in a revenue-sharing scheme.

Among other things such as sustaining the business and a positive cash cycle, Twitter will also use the new revenue stream to reward content creators.

The move comes after Musk floated the idea of charging $20 per month from verified users due to the microblogging site suffering major losses over the years.

The idea was opposed by several verified Twitter users, most famous of them being author Stephen King, which led Musk to cut the price down to $8.

However, even the $8 price tag has been criticised by users around the world as being too high for the blue tick. Besides, questions have also been raised on the veracity of the new process.

India React To Blue Tick Pricing

In the aforementioned conversation between King and Musk, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma also shared his views on the matter. Sharma suggested a tiered version for verification, differentiated on the basis of colour.

“$8 for blue and $24 for purple. (With extras like ad free linked content / DM to anyone / extra options for Sorting home feed / more nuanced blocking : muting options than generic user/ ability to pin more than one tweet/ colourful,” tweeted Sharma.

Other founders and CXOs from the startup ecosystem also tweeted out their complaints and ideas about the price for blue tick.

CRED cofounder Kunal Shah held a poll on his Twitter account, asking users if they’d be willing to pay the fee to get the blue tick for a verified account. Unsurprisingly, 75% of the participants answered no.

Indian politicians also joined in on the fun following the announcement.

While TMC MP Derek O’ Brien suggested that Twitter should take his blue tick back and pay him $4, iSpirit founding member Arvind Gupta questioned whether the pricing would include GST in India.

On a similar note, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) chief Dilip Asbe took the opportunity to promote Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for monthly payment for the blue tick.

“No worries, India has UPI AutoPay (7 Mn new approved collection mandates/month) to collect every anytime/month/quarter or yearly as you wish dear @Twitter,” tweeted Asbe.

What About The Price In India?

One of the most important things that Musk mentioned was that the $8 price would only be applicable to verified Twitter users in the US. The pricing will be adjusted as per the nation’s purchasing power parity (PPP), he said.

“Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity,” said Musk.

This means that the pricing is likely to be lower than INR 662 the $8 convert to.

India’s PPP is 9.44 times less than that of the US, according to data from the World Economic Forum. Therefore, the blue tick would cost around INR 70 per month if a direct proportion is considered between the ratios of the PPP and that of blue tick pricing.

However, Indian users will have to wait for an official announcement from Twitter on the final monthly cost for the blue tick.

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