4 ms·

My gut instinct is that the right price for verification is something like $1000 as a one-time fee. Lots of people who are active Twitter users will find that

My gut instinct is that the right price for verification is something like $1000 as a one-time fee. Lots of people who are active Twitter users will find that fee useful at some point in their life (as a business marketing expense), and Twitter will likely extract a lot more from them by charging $1000 once rather than $8/month.

ncallaway 4y ago
I think it should just be 3x the cost of their verification process, and something that disappears and needs to be re-done if you edit your name/bio/handle.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
HWR_14 4y ago
I cannot ever imagine spending $1000 for a blue check mark on Twitter.
rchaud 4y ago
Influencers and hustlebros will pay that, celebrities won't. If the celebrities leave, Twitter dies.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Exactly. Who's hurt more if it's hard to tell who the real celebrities are on Twitter? Whose press is worse when a celebrity is impersonated by some asshole on Twitter—Twitter's, or the celebrity's? Maybe initially the celebrity, but I'm gonna say it's Twitter in the medium-term. Who's gonna be hurt by "Twitter has an impersonation/fraud problem" headlines? Whatever else the blue checks are, they're also a solution to a problem for Twitter, and those blue-checks and their activity are a huge part of why everyone else engages with the platform. If they make people pay, they better hope the adoption rate is incredibly high among existing blue checks (who cares about the unknowns who pony up for it, in addition) or they're gonna be in for a bad time.
- pclmulqdq 4y ago
  Real celebrities will likely end up getting the check for free under any plan. Like it or not, that's how celebrity works. The people who won't get it for free (who have blue checks currently) are entry-level journalists with a few hundred followers and cryptobros. Both of those classes of people should have to pay. A lot of hustlebros and cryptobros do pay for checkmarks, they just don't pay Twitter.
- tenpies 4y ago
  I can imagine the exchange between Stephen King and his agent: > "Stephen, I'm trying to market your books, but the publishers aren't seeing any engagement on Twitter". > "Oh I left because I don't want to pay $20 / month to someone I disagree with politically." > "Have you been hitting the bottle again?" End of conversation. The value most of these celebrities get vastly exceeds $20 / month. The Twitter-celebrity relationship is symbiotic, nor parasitic.
  - smcl 4y ago
    I think you're overestimating the value of Twitter to Stephen King - who has been famous far longer than Twitter has been around. Taking a dig at his past alcoholism was a bit of a cheap shot, especially since he's been sober for decades by now

ncallaway 4y ago

I think it should just be 3x the cost of their verification process, and something that disappears and needs to be re-done if you edit your name/bio/handle.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

HWR_14 4y ago

I cannot ever imagine spending $1000 for a blue check mark on Twitter.

rchaud 4y ago

Influencers and hustlebros will pay that, celebrities won't. If the celebrities leave, Twitter dies.

yamtaddle 4y ago
Exactly. Who's hurt more if it's hard to tell who the real celebrities are on Twitter? Whose press is worse when a celebrity is impersonated by some asshole on Twitter—Twitter's, or the celebrity's? Maybe initially the celebrity, but I'm gonna say it's Twitter in the medium-term. Who's gonna be hurt by "Twitter has an impersonation/fraud problem" headlines? Whatever else the blue checks are, they're also a solution to a problem for Twitter, and those blue-checks and their activity are a huge part of why everyone else engages with the platform. If they make people pay, they better hope the adoption rate is incredibly high among existing blue checks (who cares about the unknowns who pony up for it, in addition) or they're gonna be in for a bad time.
pclmulqdq 4y ago
Real celebrities will likely end up getting the check for free under any plan. Like it or not, that's how celebrity works. The people who won't get it for free (who have blue checks currently) are entry-level journalists with a few hundred followers and cryptobros. Both of those classes of people should have to pay. A lot of hustlebros and cryptobros do pay for checkmarks, they just don't pay Twitter.
tenpies 4y ago
I can imagine the exchange between Stephen King and his agent: > "Stephen, I'm trying to market your books, but the publishers aren't seeing any engagement on Twitter". > "Oh I left because I don't want to pay $20 / month to someone I disagree with politically." > "Have you been hitting the bottle again?" End of conversation. The value most of these celebrities get vastly exceeds $20 / month. The Twitter-celebrity relationship is symbiotic, nor parasitic.
- smcl 4y ago
  I think you're overestimating the value of Twitter to Stephen King - who has been famous far longer than Twitter has been around. Taking a dig at his past alcoholism was a bit of a cheap shot, especially since he's been sober for decades by now