Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of his goals has been to build his subscription business, launching an updated Twitter Blue package that gives subscribers a “verified” check mark, fewer ads, preferential treatment by the algorithm, and other benefits. The plan, which is still only available via iOS or the web, now offers a discounted annual subscription for customers that you can choose instead of the $8 per month web price or $11 iOS price that includes the 30 percent fee of Apple is shifting to the consumer.
If you want to put in some extra money right away, Twitter Blue annual subscriptions are available on the web for $84 per year, saving you just over 12 percent compared to paying for a monthly web subscription — or 36 percent compared to paying via iOS .
It’s not clear if Apple will care if Twitter backfires in this way, but Apple has historically made exceptions in the App Store guidelines for things like this: “reader” apps and “multiplatform services” generally let you log into a subscription you’ve already purchased elsewhere without paying Apple’s fees.
Twitter’s new annual purchase option was mentioned on a Twitter support page starting today, but we haven’t noticed any other significant changes to the plan. Whether you pay monthly or annually, it will take an indefinite amount of time for your check to appear and you will need to verify a phone number to enable it.
The accelerated payment option appears in the shadow of recent reports that Twitter has failed to pay the rent on some of its office spaces. It is sued for default in San Francisco and in Singapore there are multiple reports that employees left the office due to non-payment.
A report was also received from the Financial times, citing three unnamed sources as saying the first installment of interest payments on $13 billion in loans that Musk used to fund his $44 billion Twitter acquisition could be paid as early as late January. The newspaper reports that bankers are in talks with Musk about restructuring some of the expensive unsecured debt with margin loans backed by his stake in Tesla.
