About Twitter's blue mark...
If you're trying to make sense of how much Twitter should cost, it's rapidly obvious that a flat $8 fee doesn't make sense as it doesn't bring enough money, but most importantly, it's not tied to a clear value proposition. Efficient pricing should be linked to the value you transfer tyo your customer.
For reference, LinkedIn optional subscription starts at a monthly $30 up to $125... with access to proper tools to manage your digital influence and a clear value proposition: "Premium members get hired 2x as fast on average."
With this principle in mind, here's a no non-sense version of monetizing Twitter:
Step 1. Grey mark first
Verifying ID and getting a grey label is free and progressively enforced as it should help against bots and provide extra value to announcers. The easiest way to get there would be to simply demote unverified accounts in the feed's algorithm.
Step 2. Then upgrade to a Blue mark
Create an optional tiered pricing depending on followers' number in exchange for access to an effective and comprehensive suite of analysis and curation tools, better visibility in the feed, and different volumes of promoted tweets.
For individuals:
- From zero to 250K followers -> $5 /month
- 250K-1m followers -> $8
- +1m followers -> $25
For businesses:
- From zero to 250K followers -> $5 /month
- 250K-1m followers -> $50
- 1-5m followers -> $500 /
- +5m followers -> $5,000
For institutions, NGOs, and public services
- FREE
The amounts and followers thresholds given here are conversation starters and must be heavily tested and challenged. But as is, they're a simple, effective pricing strategy.
Lastly? Offer a flat discount of 20% for those paying for an entire year, and because you're Elon, offer a thousand one-time-only platinum life-long subscriptions for $50K or more.
UPDATE