Twitter, closer and closer to auctioning usernames to increase its revenue

Chirping, a company undergoing a major reorganization, may be considering selling usernames to boost its revenue, according to a new report from The New York Times. This measure comes after several attempts to restart the company by its owner, the tycoon Elon Muskwho acquired it for 44,000 million dollars last October.

The social network has continued to make headlines since it was acquired by Musk: through mass layoffs, more spending cuts or imposing undesirable working conditions on its workers, The billionaire has tried all kinds of tactics to revive the social network. Or at least to make it financially viable.

After experiencing a steep decline in ad revenue, Twitter has been trying to find new ways to generate revenue to continue riding the social media wave.

To do this, a revamped subscription plan has even been created through which users pay to obtain verification credentials, a measure that has quickly become a ‘trend topic’ around the world. The Twitter Blue subscription has a monthly cost of $7.99.

Similarly, with a view to continuing to grow exponentially, the company clarified that it plans to lift its ban on political ads in the “coming weeks” so that different political figures resume their promotions, as well as more freedom of expression by unblocking accounts characterized by their hate speech. However, Musk Lbequeathed to suspend reporting by several journalistsa massively criticized act for which he had to reinstate them later.

A month ago, the Tesla owner said in a tweet that his social network would soon start releasing 1.5 billion usernames, noting that inactive accounts would be removed. As he revealed after his purchase, the provision of nominative unlocking would be intended for those accounts with the desired usernames.

These unique usernames, also known as identifiers, can be beneficial, as some people or brands are willing to pay a huge amount of money. for taking them. In fact, there is currently a black market where customers can purchase certain abandoned usernames that contain a desired word or number.

Twitter rules prohibit this

According to the New York Times, company workers have been considering organizing and holding online auctions in which people can bid on usernames, something that began discussions last December. To date, it is unknown if this measure will be implemented or if it will affect all usernames or only to one side most relevant of them.

Thanks to these auctions, people will be able to get the username they have always dreamed of, made up of the characters, words or numbers that follow the @ sign to identify Twitter accounts. In the case of its owner, for example, its identifier is @Elon Musk.

This measure could once again raise controversy in the American company, since Twitter’s rules prohibit the buying and selling of identifiers. This is why hackers have already intervened on several occasions: in 2020, a 17-year-old was arrested in Florida after hacking Twitter to obtain usernames to later sell, endangering the accounts of public figures like him. Musk, former President Barack Obama or Bill Gates.

This information follows the announcement by popular messaging app Telegram, which clarified in October that it will auction usernames, both for individual accounts and channels, thanks to its built-in marketplace. on the TON blockchain.

With information from La Vanguardia