Elon Musk to introduce paid video viewing on Twitter

It seems that Elon Musk has decided to make all the money of the Internet world — Twitter will offer videos with paid viewing. The Washington Post reports this, citing an internal email from the company. The social network’s developers are working on a feature that will allow bloggers to publish videos and charge users for viewing ($ 1, $ 2, $ 5 or $ 10), while the company will also receive a portion of the profits as a commission.

Twitter aims to launch the feature, called Paywalled Video, in about two weeks. However, the developers note high risks associated with copyright protection, problems of trust between the content creator and its consumers, compliance with the laws of different countries, etc. Twitter promised that the new feature will first undergo an internal risk assessment and only when it is decided that it meets all the requirements, Paywalled Video will become available to users.

Musk himself has set a deadline for the Twitter team — just three days for an expert assessment of the situation. By the way, it is still unclear whether the new feature was in development before Musk acquired the social network.

Although Twitter makes most of its money from advertising, Musk recently announced that he wants to charge users for other services, including the blue confirmation checkmark. The billionaire was immediately criticized by celebrities and influencers, so he was forced to reduce the verification fee by more than half.

Musk bought the company for $ 44 billion. The billionaire immediately fired all the CEOs, appointed himself «in charge,» engaged trusted business partners, and proposed a number of major changes, which he often posted on his own Twitter account.