Twitter Blue To Arrive In India In Less Than A Month: Elon Musk

If a tweet by Elon “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” Musk is anything to go by, India might see the arrival of Twitter’s flagship subscription service, Twitter Blue, in less than a month.

“Hopefully, in less than a month,” tweeted Elon, in response to a question asked by @cricprabhua on Twitter about when Blue would come to India.

Twitter Blue is a subscription service that gives users certain perks, including the ability to edit and undo their tweets. Twitter Blue also offers top articles, custom navigation, bookmark folders and custom app icons to users.

India is the third-largest market in the world for Twitter, after the US and Japan. Twitter Blue’s rollout might work as another revenue stream for the microblogging site. For now, it remains available for users in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking of revenue streams, Musk announced that anyone on the platform can get verified – get a blue tick – for $8 per month. The move sparked widespread outrage across the platform, particularly among verified users.

However, over the subsequent days, Musk has shown no signs of pulling the decision back. If anything, the new Twitter boss has doubled down on his efforts, telling many people flat out that they will either have to pay or leave.

Musk’s reign at the world’s largest microblogging site has started with equal parts fanfare and controversy. As soon as the SpaceX chief took the helm, he fired the top brass at Twitter, including CEO Parag Agrawal and the policy chief Vijaya Gadde.

Soon thereafter, he announced charging $8 per month for blue tick verification, sparking more debate and outrage around the move.

Over the week gone by, Twitter has also seen massive layoffs being conducted across the world, with media reports suggesting that the microblogging site has seen the exit of around 3,700 employees or half of its workforce.

There was a clearout in India too, as more than half of the 300-strong workforce at Twitter India was let go last week. According to Inc42 sources, people across marketing communications, engineering, sales, and product development verticals were fired. 

Interestingly, media reports from early Monday (November 7) also suggest that the microblogging site is calling back dozens of fired employees across the world. The people being called back were either fired by mistake or are too essential for building features Elon Musk wants, media reports noted.