Elon Musk’s new “Not-a-Bot” program is starting in New Zealand and the Philippines. It charges new users $1 per year and requires phone verification to post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
While the “not a bot” argument exists, it is a weak one. I suspect the goal of this is,
A. Convince users outside of NZ and the Philippines to either create an account or at least keep (not delete) their existing account. Twitter needs to prove to advertisers that Twitter has reach/influence and with this they can say “you may have heard Twitter is bleeding users, but did you know the number of new Twitter users has actually increased xx/yy?” and it won’t technically be a lie.
B. Elon really does think this service will be an everything app of the future. He and anyone who believes this is absolutely bonkers and should genuinely seek help. However the value of an account that is already onboarded (e.g. had a credit card on file) is worth far more than any regular account. Convincing an account to spend their first dollar is much harder than convincing them to spend their second and so on.
While the “not a bot” argument exists, it is a weak one. I suspect the goal of this is,
A. Convince users outside of NZ and the Philippines to either create an account or at least keep (not delete) their existing account. Twitter needs to prove to advertisers that Twitter has reach/influence and with this they can say “you may have heard Twitter is bleeding users, but did you know the number of new Twitter users has actually increased xx/yy?” and it won’t technically be a lie.
B. Elon really does think this service will be an everything app of the future. He and anyone who believes this is absolutely bonkers and should genuinely seek help. However the value of an account that is already onboarded (e.g. had a credit card on file) is worth far more than any regular account. Convincing an account to spend their first dollar is much harder than convincing them to spend their second and so on.
C. He was financed specifically to tank Twitter subtly and he’s doing a very job bad of it.