Twitter Risks Alienating More Brands by Charging $1000 Per Month to Stay Verified

The changes at Twitter have been many in recent months, and it all seems to be in the name of making a profit. However, the efforts have been a mixed bag, with Twitter Blue having a shaky reception and the overall situation at the company driving advertisers away. Now, Twitter is considering charging brands a fee of $1000 per month to stay verified, despite the risk of alienating those remaining on the platform.

Brand Verification by Twitter

There are plenty of people out there who see an account on Twitter and immediately look at the checkmark. It is a sign of legitimacy, and while that sentiment has weakened some as money becomes a factor for blue verification, it has not died out entirely. But the question is, does a gold checkmark warrant $1000 per month?

Brands that refuse to pay the $1000 monthly fee will lose their status, seeing the gold checkmark disappear. Of course, there is still the cheaper blue checkmark to consider, but as a status symbol, gold glitters brighter than blue.

In addition, any brand that purchases the gold checkmark will need to fork out another $50 per month for every account affiliated with the business, which could potentially add up to a hefty sum.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra posted an email between a Twitter employee and an unnamed business that matches the new money-making initiative. “As an early access subscriber, you’ll get a gold checkmark for your organization and affiliation badges for its associates,” it reads. “If you’d like to subscribe, Verified for Organizations is $1,000 per month, and $50 per additional affiliated handle per month with one month of free affiliations.”

The news was confirmed by a later post by Navarra, which revealed another instance of the $1000 per month rate.

Twitter’s Verification for Organizations Program

Verification for Organizations, previously called Blue for Business, was announced by Twitter last year. The goal was to allow businesses to “distinguish themselves” on the platform and to make it possible for companies to link to their employees, thus serving as proof that someone works for them.

At the time of the original announcement, not much was known about Blue for Business, but the intent to make money with an “enterprise” tier was obvious. Moreover, its announcement was around the same time as the gray checkmark rollout, which clearly showed Twitter’s desire to create multiple types of checkmarks for different purposes.

That being said, there is not much solid information from Twitter about the subscription, which might be due to the fact that the company no longer has a communications team.

Whatever the case, it is nothing new for the platform, which has initiated various plans to cut costs and bring in money under Elon Musk’s reign. Just recently, it made the decision to remove the free tier of its API. The decision will force developers to pay for access, which will cause many small and free projects to shut down.

Even the company’s decision to share ad revenue with creators comes with strings, requiring them to have a Blue subscription. The message is clear: nothing is free under the new Twitter. Well, there is still free speech, right?

With all this talk about Twitter, why not follow Grit Daily’s account for more stories? If you comment, we promise to say something back! Probably.