- By Vikas Yadav
- Sun, 07 May 2023 08:32 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
WHILE Elon Musk's Twitter has been in the news for its Blue premium benefits, more than half of its early buyers have stopped paying for their subscription, according to Mashable. The service was announced by the new chief in November last year. As per data, only 6,40,000 (by the end of April) Twitter users are paying for the Blue.
The numbers might look less at first sight, it turns out even more revealing once we check the graph of subscriptions at the start of the service. Of the nearly 1,50,000 early subscribers of Twitter Blue, only about 68,157 continue to tune in at the end of April. This implies approximately 81,843 users (more than 54 per cent) who subscribed to the service in the first few days cancelled their plan.
Unbelievable churn rate
These are shocking numbers and an unbelievable churn rate (percentage of subscribers that unsubscribe) for an online service. According to Recurly Research, an overall churn rate of 5.57 per cent is the average for a subscription business.
As per the reports, early subscribers' stats was sourced from a Washington Post report that published the leaked stats. It reported that within a few days of the launch of Twitter Blue, roughly 1,50,000 accounts subscribed to the service. During infancy, the service was snapped for nearly a month as cases of Twitter accounts impersonating top brands rose exponentially. This added to the intense grilling of the service.
Caveats
However, the results come with a few caveats. Out of the nearly 68,157 users, not all might have paid their dues for the subscription uniformly. Additionally, the report cites instances (via Gizmodo) where users received benefits of Twitter Blue without shelling out cash or after the cancellation of the plan.
Further, the latest data cited in the report suggests a large chunk of Twitter Blue accounts has followers ranging from 0-1,000.
- Nearly 291,183 subscribers have under 1,000 followers
- Close to 107,492 enjoy have less than 100 followers
- Roughly 3,352 paid users have zero followers
Meanwhile, the subscription plans for Twitter Blue start from Rs 900 on a smartphone and Rs 650 on the web monthly. Recently, Twitter started winding down the old legacy verified program through which it snatched away the Blue verified checkmark of top celebrities and companies.